


In Reverse

by Eyeliner_Vampire



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: Alterate Lives, Alternate Universe, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fanfiction, Ghosts, Paranormal, Psychic Abilities, SPR, Switch Lives, Twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 19:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10951239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyeliner_Vampire/pseuds/Eyeliner_Vampire
Summary: Kazuya Shibuya and his medium brother become involved with the Society for Psychical Research and its young manager, Mai Taniyama, when she accepts a case at his school. Broken cameras, skeptics, and budding romances – AU. Case 2: The Notebook





	1. Part I: Ghosts Don't Exist

Dedicated to all the fanfictioner's who have inspired me with their incredible tales of love, loss, and ghost hunting:  
ArchangelBBQ, AmyNChan, Coriana, blacklashesxoxo, Malindorie, Melody Bellerose, miss koneko, sometime north of reality, heliotrip, tiffo the chicken flea, and to all the ones I haven't found yet.  
This one's for you.

Prologue  
Ghosts Don't Exist  
Section I: Are There Really Lots Of Evil Spirits?

The late afternoonsun lit the room, just starting its descent below the surrounding treetops. Classes had ended for the day and the classroom was all but empty, save for a small group of whispering girls taking turns sneaking nervous glances at a certain black haired boy.

He promptly ignored them, leaning his chin in his palm and gazing idly out the window. It was a clear sky; the sun unhindered as it streaked across his desk, warming him. He took in the yellowing grass, the leaves dancing across the sidewalks in the gentle breeze, though he didn't care much for the scenery. It was the sight of the last wave of students making their way to the school's gate three stories below that made his lips turn downward in envy.

He would have left hours ago ー skived off his afternoon classes completely if he hadn't been convinced Yamada sensei would make good on his threat of detention if he didn't show for cleaning duties again. Kazuya let his eyes drift over the school grounds, sweeping unseeingly over a grossly misplaced white van as he wondered, not for the first time that day, what Gene was doing.

His cheerful twin brother was in London, probably chatting up a girl and enjoying one of Luella Davises lush dinners.

"Umm," A soft, girlish hum caught his attention. He managed to pull his gaze away from the window long enough to glare at the dark haired girl that had dared to approach him. She blushed, visibly flustered under his gaze as she fiddled with a small blue penlight. He vaguely recognized her as one of the girls from his homeroom but he hadn't bothered to remember her name. "K-Kazuya-kunー"

"Don't call me that."

She jumped in surprise, ducking her head in a quick, apologetic bow, "S-sorry, Shibuya-senpai."

He gave a curt, approving nod, turning back to the window.

"Uh," she continued. He felt her stare glued to the back of his head, "Keiko and I and some others were going to the A/V room to tell ghost stories. W-we were wondering if, um, you w-would you like to join us?"

No.

Why would he want to waste his time sharing ridiculously exaggerated stories about so-called "ghostly encounters"? He didn't particularly believe in ghosts. Sure, his brother was a medium and he could attest to the existence of spirits, but ghosts? That was just a word other people used to scare each other. But he didn't say any of that aloud.

Instead, he said simply, "I don't believe in ghosts."

"O-oh..."

He could see her smile falter in the reflection of the window.

"Sorry for your trouble."

"That's okay!" The smile was back. He fought off an eye roll. Teenaged girls were so easy to please. "Maybe sometime in the future?" She asked hopefully.

"I doubt it."

She giggled as if he'd told a joke then turned to regroup with the rest of her friends at the door. Still giggling, she waved, "Bye, senpai!"

"Take care."

She blushed then disappeared, red-faced, into the hall.

Finally alone, Kazuya closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. He was really late now; he could practically feel the week's detention already.

"Is that true?"

Kazuya jumped, spinning in his seat.

A short, teenage girl was leaning casually against the door frame, arms crossed over her chest and a blush tinging her cheeks. She looked almost as surprised as he did.

How long had she been there? "Sorry?"

A small, amused grin was tugging at her lips. "You really don't believe in ghosts?"

Ghosts? Had she been eavesdropping on him this whole time?

He frowned, watching her tuck a lock of short brown hair back behind her ear. There was something vaguely familiar about the curve of her jaw, the light brown of her eyes that made him feel like he'd seen her before. But she wasn't a student. She was sporting a white dress shirt and short black tie, but it was a far cry from the school's preferred light green uniform. Even the skirt was black.

Maybe she was a transfer student then? Perhaps he'd seen her during last semesters introduction ceremony.

"No," he said firmly, avoiding her gaze as he stood and slipped his books into his bag, "I don't. Is that a problem?"

She hmph'd, pressing a finger to her bottom lip. "Not at all. It's kind of... ideal actually."

"'Ideal'?" He turned, dumbfounded, "what are you going on about?"

She didn't answer but seemed to be turning something over in her brain. He could practically see the gears turning. After a minute of silence, he readjusted his bag, "If you wouldn't mind moving, I'm already late for something."

She gave a half laugh, "Yeah, I'd say you are."

He was nearly ready to push her out of the way, "Who are you?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what exactly?"

She took a step back into the hall as if to appraise him. "You are Shibuya Kazuya, right?"

As tempting as it was to say, 'no, I'm Yuujin Shibuya,' Kazuya folded his arms across his chest and glared instead, "Who told you that?"

She tilted her head slowly to one side. Her confusion was obvious. "I'mー"

"Taniyama-san!" Someone shouted from the end of the hall. Kazuya stood up straighter. He didn't have to turn to know it was the Yamada sensei and that he was definitely late for cleaning duty.

"Yamada senseiー" Kazuya quickly bowed his head in apology but the older man ignored him, as he appeared behind the girl with a wide grin.

"I was wondering where you'd gone off too. Ah! I see you've already met Shibuya-kun. Good, good."

Kazuya glanced between his teacher and the new girl.

Taniyama-san. That name, like her face, sounded very familiar. He was absolutely sure he had heard it somewhere before but he just couldn't remember where. Kazuya stared suspiciously at the short girl smiling cheekily at him as she propped herself up against the window sill. Surely she hadn't been one of Gene's ex-girlfriends.

Taniyama-san bowed quite ungracefully as she almost collided with the wooden archway on her way down. "Taniyama Mai," she said confidently, catching herself, "very pleased to meet you Shibuya-kun."

Nope, definitely not an ex-girlfriend.

Yamada sensei nodded approvingly, "She was hired by the principal to investigate the old school house."

"Hired?" He was starting to feel like a parrot, "to investigate?"

"That's right."

"Investigate what?" He asked, indignant. Honestly, he didn't care what the investigation was for, but he was curious why they were telling him all this. And more importantly, why Yamada sensei was happy to see him. After skipping class and cleaning duties on more than a few occasions, the two hadn't had a very courteous relationship.

Taniyama-san met his gaze, "Your principal has hired me to exorcise the spirits rumored to have cursed the old school house."

He stared back at her, speechless. Sure, he'd heard the rumors about the old school house. Rumors of mysterious apparitions appearing in the old broken windows of the schoolhouse, of murders, and disembodied voices. Everyone in the school had heard them, but he never expected the principal, a reasonable, rational man, would stoop so low as to acknowledge them. And he certainly wouldn't hire a so-called 'ghost hunter'.

Kazuya suddenly turned on his heel and started down the hallway. If they wanted to joke around he didn't have to waste his time.

"Shibuya-kun! Don't be so rude."

He paused at the end of the hall if only to spare himself the lingering threat of detention.

Yamada sensei frowned at his student. "You will not be performing cleaning duties today. You will escort Taniyama-san to the old school house and act as an onsite assistant, instead."

He couldn't help himself. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Shibuyaー!"

"It's alright, Yamada sensei." Taniyama-san bowed respectfully, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "I already have all the help I needー"

"Most certainly not. Shibuya-kun will assist you in any way you need. Right, Kazuya?"

He wasn't sure if the use of his first name and drop in honorifics were meant to be a warning but he boldly folded his arms over his chest. "I'd rather clean chalkboards."

.

.

"You can set that down over here, Shibuya-kun."

"San." Kazuya huffed, out of breath as he lugged the heavy machinery into the back of the silver van. "Shibuya-san."

He glared at her, was still fuming from the hour long lecture about manners and 'time management' that ended with a threat of suspension. He almost took his teacher up on his offer before reason returned to him. And that's how he found himself lifting piles of heavy equipment in this grueling heat as Taniyama-san sat in the back of the big van jotting down notes and labeling cassettes.

"You really shouldn't refer to yourself that way, you know." She chastised, not looking up as she scribbled something out on a sheet of paper. "It's egotistical."

"It's proper." He snapped, wiping the sweat beading on his forehead as he set down a heavy recorder. "Why are these things so heavy?"

Mai peered at the item with a dismissive look, "it's only 5 kilograms. Maybe you're just weak."

"Maybe they're just heavy."

"I could do it for you," she said offhandedly, gesturing to him with a wave, "if you really can't liftー"

"I've got it." He trudged back to the side of the old school house, wrapped the wires tightly around the sound box and microphones and lugged them back to the van, grimacing.

As he placed it neatly in line with the rest of the microphones, a thought struck him.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Hm?"

He turned to question her properly, frowning. "Classes have been out for almost an hour now. There was no guarantee I would have still been in the classroom. Did Yamada sensei tell you?"

"No, he didn't tell me." She pushed a finger to her lip looking thoughtful, "I had a feeling, I guess." She shrugged.

He raised an eyebrow. "A 'feeling'?"

"They told me someone named Shibuya Kazuya would be escorting me on the grounds but you weren't here when I arrived. So I went to look for you."

His eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs. There were over a hundred classrooms in that one building alone, the odds of finding him were slim at best. Especially after having no idea who you're searching for. "Wait," he said, irritated over something other than forced labor, "they told you that without telling me first?"

"I guess so."

He grumbled, muttering something dirty under his breath, picking up another heavy camera. "Where did you get all this equipment anyway?" He asked. There were at least 20 cameras, each looking slightly different from the one beside it. Beneath them were monitors, rolls of different colored wires, and what looked like a computer tower. The van was so tightly packed with equipment, he couldn't tell where the trunk ended and the cabin began.

"The company owns them." Taniyama-san offered, idly wrapping up a pile of miscellaneous wires.

What kind of company could afford equipment like this? It all looked new, or else in excellent condition. He couldn't imagine how much it all must have cost. All in the name of 'ghost hunting'. "What company...?"

Taniyama-san smiled innocently. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot they didn't tell you. I work for BSPR, the British Society for Psychical Research."

Edited 3.29.17

ELV


	2. Storm Approach

"Dialogue in English."  
"Dialogue in Japanese."

Chapter 1  
Storm Approach

"Eh... Nn..." Even with the entirety of two languages at his fingertips, all Kazuya could manage was a series of unintelligible grumbles. He imagined he must have looked like an idiot gaping at her with his mouth hanging open, he pressed his lips together in a thin line.

Taniyama-san lifted her chin to look at him, brown eyes curious. "Have you heard of it?"

Had he heard of it? Kazuya bit back the indignant scoff that threatened to blow his calm demeanor. He knew BSPR had a strange obsession with researching hauntings and so-called psychics. And that his brother was currently their new obsession, a 'perfect medium' they were calling him. Kazuya folded his arms across his chest. "You could... say that."

She smiled, the edge of her lips turning up, a slight pinkish tinge gracing her cheeks as she looked away.

He turned away too, gesturing to the plethora of cameras. "What are these?"

She half turned, pointing at each one in turn, "That's an infrared camera, it maps temperature, a night vision for seeing in the dark, and a full-spectrum camera."

"Full-spectrum?"

"Mhm, it can see objects usually invisible to the human eyes," she grinned sarcastically at the lost look on his face. "We should probably set up base before it gets too dark."

He blanched, "I thought this was base."

"No, this," she giggled, gesturing to the camera still in his hands, "was pre-investigational research."

Pre-investigational... Kazuya deadpanned. "You're researching your research?"

She shook her head, "It's too dangerous to walk blindly into a supposed 'haunted house'. We set these up around the perimeter to capture sound throughout the day. But we don't need them anymore."

He nodded, handing her the last microphone. She ejected the tape and labeled it. "So... is there? A spirit, I mean. Inside the school house?" He tried to keep the disbelief out of his voice, but he was almost positive the old school building was nothing more than, well, old.

Taniyama-san narrowed her eyes in thought, tapping the pen against her lips as she spoke. "I don't believe so. For a place with so many reported sightings, there is no reliable evidence. But all I know for sure right now is if there is a spirit here, it certainly isn't malicious."

"Then why investigate?"

"I'm a scientist. I don't jump to conclusions; I infer the most logical conclusions based off all evidence." He couldn't help but notice how different she seemed when she was discussing her work. Her demeanor was calm and confident, but not overly so. She was almost a different person than the girl he had met in the classroom.

"Anyway," she continued, jumping to her feet, "take these shelves to the second-floor. Classroom 2-E will function as our base."

He barely braced himself in time as she dropped the bundle of heavy wood planks and metal poles into his arms. They must have weighed well over 50 kilograms. "Do I have to?"

"Why? Are you scared?"

Naru shook his head petulantly, "There's nothing to be scared of. Ghosts don't exist."

She hopped out of the van, bringing several microphones forward and stacking them together. "Wow, handsome and brave."

He paused, searching her face with a sly grin, "You think I'm good looking?"

He watched in amusement as her cheeks tinged red and she stuttered, "W-well, those girls did seem to make quite a fuss over you."

"Right," he said slowly, sarcastically. "At least they have good taste." He knew that for a fact. At least half of them had already asked his brother out, all for naught, too. He was already taken.

She glared. "You... Narcissist."

Happy to finally have one over on her, he made his way over to the old school house. The first thing he noticed was the amount of dust in the air. He held his breath as he went, trying not to sneeze when he noticed a large overturned shoe rack, balanced precariously on top of what used to be an expensive camera but was now completely useless, it's lens shattered and wires sticking out. He thought he saw drops of blood, too.

Simply standing beside the wooden rack, Kazuya could feel a light presence emanating off of it. It wasn't strong but it called out to him, a buzz of noise in his ears. If he touched it, he held no doubts he would hear the voices clearly.

He glanced over his shoulder. Taniyama-san's thin form was half hidden by the doors of the big van. If he was quick, she would never notice. Kneeling, he carefully laid the equipment on the floor and traced his fingertips over the dark mahogany.

As he thought, there wasn't much of an imprint at all, but the voices became sharper. There were the sounds of students laughing and chatting, a school bell ringing, sounds imprinted from years of use in the school house. Then, muffled by the chatter, was another voice.

"Mai!" Said a low, man's voice, and then a yelp. As Kazuya removed his fingers, he felt the ghost of the shoe rack as if it had fallen atop of him and the sound of shattering glass.

Head pounding, he quickly stood straight, taking the pile of equipment with him. Had that been Taniyama-san screaming? Had someone been with her when the rack fell over? Was that their blood?

He glanced back over his shoulder but she was just as she had moments before. The imprint was still fresh, no more than a few hours ago and fading fast.

Hmmm.

He skirted around the broken glass to the stairs. It wouldn't do to stand around, and he certainly did not want to draw unnecessary attention to himself, so he climbed the rickety stairs to the second floor. Once he got to the designated classroom, he deposited the heavy material onto a few abandoned desks.

Taniyama-san followed him in a few minutes later, lugging what looked like a computer tower.

"Do you usually work alone?" He asked in his best uninterested tone. From what he'd seen, it seemed someone else had been here and had gotten themselves injured. But Taniyama-san looked fine, her skirt a little on the dirty side, perhaps, but unscathed.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that's a lot of equipment for one person to carry. I imagine at the pace you're going it would take you all day." He shook his head, smirking, "unless, of course, you always request an onsite assistant."

She cut him a flat look. "Do you have to be so blunt?"

"Consider it research."

"Self-importance is an unbecoming quality." She mumbled, kneeling beside one of the bigger desks and setting the tower down, "but to answer your question, no. I don't usually require an assistant. Lin-san is more of a guardian than an assistant, but he is currently... unavailable."

He had a feeling that this 'Lin' had been quite badly injured if he had left Taniyama-san to investigate by herself.

"Satisfied?"

He nodded, "Quite."

Taniyama-san nodded spinning on her heel. "Start bringing in the rest of the equipment. I'll put those shelves together."

.

.

Three hours. Kazuya huffed out a baited breath as he staggered backward into one of the abandoned desks. The sun had disappeared from the sky by the time he was done placing the last of the T.V. screens onto the upper shelves. He glanced out the window, sighing at the streaks of faint purples and pinks that were left in the sun's wake.

At this rate, he'd be lucky if he got home before the trains stopped running.

Taniyama-san followed his gaze to the window, plugging in the last few cords. "You can go home, Naru-chan. We're done for today."

"Na...ru...?" He said slowly. No one called him that except... Gene. Who was currently visiting BSPR for the last week… If this was his idea of a joke, Naru definitely wasn't laughing. He retrieved his bag from the ground with more force than necessary, glaring. "Who did you hear that from?"

"Oh," she blushed deeply, turning from him to hide her reddened face. "Nothing. Forget I said it."

He advanced on her, "Did Gene tell you to say that?"

Her hand hesitated over one of the large cameras he had carried up earlier, "Oh, I'm sorry. Does someone already call you that?"

Naru didn't say anything but hoped his face wouldn't give him away. Did she really not know or was she faking?

"I guess it shouldn't surprise me," she babbled on, offering him a wry smile, "there was bound to be someone else who thinks you're just as narcissistic as I do, Na-ru-cha-n."

He didn't know if he liked the word 'narcissistic', he preferred to think he was confident ー with good reason, but at least he still just Kazuya Shibuya.

.

.

Naru twitched, eyes pinched shut as they darted back and forth. He kicked, tossing off the rest of the blanket that had managed to wrap itself around his waist.

His bedroom was dark save for the glowing screen of his cell phone. It buzzed across the floor, loud and persistent, the noise loud enough to stir the teen from his nightmare.

He jerked awake, sucking down a trembling breath as he blinked up at the dark ceiling. The phone vibrated twice more before he rolled over onto his side, squinting at the number displayed before flipping it open.

"Gene..." He slurred, voice thick with sleep and lingering unease. It felt odd to speak in English after so long, the words muddling in his mind as he peiced the words together, "Is something wrong?"

"Can't I call my little brother just for the sake of it?" The voice on the other end sounded amused, chuckling softly into the receiver. Naru grunted, about to tell his brother that no, he couldn't when Gene continued, "Actually, I'm surprised you picked up. What is it, 3am there?"

Just the sound of his brother's voice soothed his unconsciousness, his head hurting a little less. Naru turned over, groaning with the effort it took to open an eye and read the glowing digital clock. "3:15," he corrected in Japanese. At least he still had a few hours before he had to get up.

"I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"I was."

"Oh." There was a soft rustling sound and a creak as Naru imagined his brother collapsing onto the bed, lying lazily on top of the covers instead of beneath them. "I called earlier. You didn't pick up."

Naru furrowed his eyebrows, pressing his fingers to his forehead to ward off an oncoming headache. "I was busy."

"With what?"

Naru avoided the question, asking one of his own. "Have you met Taniyama Mai?"

"Whaー have you suddenly taken an interest in extracurricular ghost hunting, dear brother?"

"So, you have?" He growled.

Gene sighed, defeated, "No. I've been told Taniyama-san is currently traveling abroad. I'm supposed to meet the Whittlock siblings tomorrow, though. If you're interested in them."

Naru ignored the last bit, blinking at the ceiling. Was he telling the truth? Mai wasn't just a part of an elaborate practical joke? This ghost hunting thing was for real? As the truth settled over him, anger ebbing, he found annoyance replacing it. If Gene wasn't responsible for his momentary misery, than that meant his teachers were. He frowned at the speckled ceiling.

"Bad timing I guess," his brother continued, flippant, "I really wanted to meet her. I hear she's really cute."

He didn't bother hiding his disgust as he readjusted his hold on the phone. "Why are you calling me, Gene?"

Gene chuckled into the phone, "I miss you."

Naru snorted, "Goodnight."

"I'm serious, Noll," he admitted in a rush, "please don't hang up."

Naru didn't respond.

"...Noll?"

Naru shook his head, sighing into the phone, "I'm here."

There was a long stretch of silence between them as the two thought about what to say.

Surprising them both, it was Naru who broke the silence, anxiety driving him to ask the question he hadn't wanted to ask. "You don't think the old school house is haunted, do you?"

The responding laugh sounded more confused than amused as Gene tsk'd. "What's this about? Are you having nightmares againー?"

"Gene."

"No." From the sound of his twin's voice, it was obvious he was frowning. "Absolutely not."

Naru nodded, aware that Gene couldn't see him, and allowed the line to lapse into silence again, neither twin having anything to say, but not wanting to say goodbye either. With his eyes closed and his mind appeased, Naru was finding it hard to stay awake. He had begun to nod off to the even bursts of static when Gene spoke again.

His voice had grown soft, the words coming in slow, barely audible murmurs, "Luella and Martin say hi... They wish... You came..."

"Mmph," was all Naru said, finding it hard to form words in his state of half-sleep.

Gene might have said something else ー in fact, he was positive he'd probably said something important, but Naru didn't hear it. The next thing he knew, it was 4:45 and he had been startled out of his sleep by a muffled thud from the upper apartment.

Gene's soft, even breaths could still be heard on the other end of the line as he retrieved the phone from the floor where he must have dropped it in his sleep.

He held the sleek black phone in his palm, thumb hovering over the END button as he listened to his twin sleeping peacefully. It was the first time they had ever been apart for this long, on two different continents nonetheless, and Naru was finding these late night phone calls increasingly depressing.

He'd almost managed to summon the courage to end the call when Gene stirred on the other end, static momentarily exploding over the line.

"Oi... Noll?"

Naru hurriedly pressed the phone back to his ear, blinking at the ceiling as he whet his dry lips. "Yeah?"

"Love you."

"Me too." He replied quickly out of habit. He cleared his throat nervously, "We'll... talk tomorrow."

It was Gene's turn to grunt his response, yawning loudly. "...Sweet dreams."

Naru made a noise that was something between a scoff and a sigh, but the line had already gone dead.

And just like that their small, shared apartment suddenly felt very, very lonely.

Edited 3.29.17

ELV


	3. Pressure Rising

"Dialogue in English."  
"Dialogue in Japanese."

Chapter 2  
Pressure Rising

There was something about the sound of the teacher's monotone voice reading one of Shakespeare's sonnets, paired with the warmth of the afternoon sun on his back that made it impossible for Naru to keep his eyes open. After Gene's ill-timed phone call, Naru had found himself in such a state of unrest that not even a hot cup of Earl Grey could help him fall asleep. Now, nearing the end of the last class of the day and the promise of sleeping in tomorrow morning, he could hardly keep his thoughts in order.

"...Shibuya-senpai?"

He jerked back in his seat, yelping as his knee collided with the underside of the desk. Somehow class had ended without his notice; the classroom was all but empty save for the group of curious girls standing by the teacher's desk and the frightened girl still hovering beside him. "Um," he hummed, hating the lingering slur of sleep in his voice, "Yes?"

"A-are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

His first impulse was to glare at the girl, Michiru or whatever her name was, but then he remembered exactly where he was supposed to be. He forced one of Gene's charming smiles, checking his watch as he stood to pack his bag. "No, it's me who should be apologizing. I guess time got away from me."

Her worry melted into a smile beneath her rosy blush, "It's okay, s-senpai. I just... wanted to ask you a question."

Naru wanted to roll his eyes but allowed his lips contort into a curious (but equally attractive) smirk instead, "About what?"

"We heard that the principal hired someone to investigate the old school house." She said, picking at the hem of her skirt, "And you were hired to assist him."

He hadn't heard a question in that statement, but he reluctantly nodded anyway, "Yes, that's true."

"I heard he hired a Miko!"

"No, that's notー"

"I thought it was a Priest."

"Does that mean it's true?" Michiru said over her friends, "The old school house is really haunted?"

"Was it because we were telling ghost stories?" Her friend squeaked, a guilty look on her face.

Naru rubbed his temples, attempting to ward off the impending headache, "No, not exactlyー"

"Did you say 'ghost stories'?" All eyes in the room flitted to the doorway where a nervous looking black haired teen stood with her arms crossed protectively over her chest. She huffed at the attention, striding further into the room with a scowl. "Didn't I tell you to stop?"

"Kuroda-san..."

The new girl continued on, ignorant to the rising tension. She pushed a hand to her forehead, "It seems your carelessness has attracted many spirits to this place. Ugh, it's no wonder I've had headaches all day."

"Oh," Naru offered sarcastically, relieved to be able to drop the 'nice guy' act as he hid a yawn behind his hand. This 'being pleasant' thing was tiring; he wondered how Gene managed to do it all the time. "You're a medium, then?"

Kuroda glared daggers at him. "Yes and I can sense that many spirits have gathered in the old school house. It's no wonder the principal has hired paranormal investigators."

Naru ignored the last bit and the surprised chatter that it ignited in the highschoolers, pulling his backpack over his shoulder. If he didn't end this conversation soon he was going to be late meeting Taniyama-san, but he couldn't resist the temptation. "What kind of spirits?"

Kuroda stumbled. "Sorry?"

"In the school house. What kind of spirits do you 'sense'?"

"Those from the war, of course." She fixed her rounded glasses, pushing them further up the bridge of her nose. "World War II."

"I was under the impression this school was founded before World War II," Naru tapped his finger on his chin, remembering the pamphlet he'd received before the introduction ceremony. "And I do not recall reading anything about the school's participation in the war. Perhaps you're confused."

"I am not!" She yelled, her fists shaking at her sides, "The spirits of the dead soldiers haunt the old school house ー you're the one the principal chose to assist, aren't you? If you introduce me to them, I'm sure they will understand."

Noll highly doubted it, but he managed to keep the distain off his face as he shrugged and his way pushed past her. "I don't think an introduction will be necessary. But if you truly feel that way, you can find us in the old school house."

.

.

"Damnit. Damnit. Damnit." He swore with every step as he jogged to the old school house. He was definitely late now, after falling asleep, and that thing with Kuroda... Naru shook his head. She might be lying about her so called 'psychic powers' but there was definitely something off about that girl. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Thankfully, it seemed that Mai hadn't made it into the building yet.

"I may be young but that does not make me incapable!" He heard her shout before he spotted her angry form jumping from her perch on the vans ledge.

He didn't recognize the two standing opposite of her nor did he recognize the young blond boy who jumped between Mai and the tall redhead saying, in broken Japanese, "There's no need to argue. The principalー"

"The principal thinks BSPR is unreliable." The redhead interrupted, a smug grin on her face as she flicked her hair over her shoulder in a show of importance. "No matter how prestigious the company is; a 16-year-old kid just isn't skilled enough. This must be their idea of a joke."

BSPR? Unreliable? While Naru may have harbored ill feelings toward the company, he knew they took their research seriously. And Mai was, well... Mai. Naru slowed to a walk, following the edge of the path so that the grass muffled his footsteps. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but curiosity carried him forward.

A tall man with long hair, chuckled, "Play time is over, kid. Just leave the rest to me."

Mai stared blankly at the pair in front of her, folding her arms across her chest. At the sound of being call 'kid', she suddenly looked older, mature as she stated simply, "If the principal has a problem with my age then he can dismiss me himself. Until such a time, I will resume my investigation." She pivoted on her heel, nearly colliding with Naru.

He stumbled back guiltily, "Uh...Good afternoon."

Her eyes widened in surprise, his name tumbling from her lips before she could stop herself. "Naru-chan..." But she recovered quickly, "I will not be needing your assistance today. Please, feel free to leave." She said evenly, her eyes glossing over as she pushed past him.

Naru didn't know what to do. Part of him wanted to follow her, he didn't feel like bothering with these new people, but the another part kept him rooted in place. She said she didn't need his help — didn't that mean he could go home? He sighed inwardly. Despite what she said, he knew she hadn't really meant it; Mai was upset.

But none of the others seemed to notice as the man said, coldly, "What a shame."

The woman didn't try to hide her delight at having won the argument. She smirked, looking Naru up and down as she appraised him, "You must be Shibuya Kazuya. The principal mentioned you'd be here." Naru fought off an irritated sigh as he felt her appraisal of him, "You are quite handsome, aren't you?"

"I know." He replied honestly, indifferent. It wasn't an attempt to sound conceited or 'narcissistic' as Mai has dubbed it. He simply knew he was attractive.

But the tall redhead hadn't been expecting his blunt honesty. She twitched in irritation, her scowl making her look much older than she was. "How arrogant."

He shrugged at this, turning from Mai's retreating figure disappear into the old building.

The older man spoke for the first time, his gaze also focused on the doors Mai had disappeared through, "All this fancy equipment, man, the principal must really feel cheated."

Naru turned on the strangers, leveling them with an icy glare. "Who are you? None of you seem to be ghost hunters."

"Ghost hunters? Don't be silly," The woman said, searching his face with her big hazel eyes. Gene may have described her beautiful but Naru thought she was rather... plain. Her red painted lips spread into a wide smile. "Matsuzaki Ayako. Nice to meet you."

"I don't care for your name." He scowled, "Why are you here?"

"How rude." She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff, "I am a Miko."

Naru raised an eyebrow. A Miko? Then, was one of these men a Priest? "I was under the impression that Miko's were young, pure maidens. You," he said disdainfully, "are neither."

"Why youー!"

The older man beside her snorted, shaking with laughter. Naru turned his cold gaze on him, "And you? Are you Miko-san's assistant?"

His laughter died instantly, "Assistant," he mumbled, shaking his head, "I'm a monk from Kouya Mountain. My name is Takigawa Houshou."

Naru studied the monk and the mess of hair that lay over his shoulder, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew all about Kouya Mountain. Gene had studied there for a month during his Shinto-obsession phase. He still hadn't forgiven his twin for dragging him along. "I wasn't aware Kouya Mountain allowed long hair."

"Tch!" The monk scoffed, looking away, "I did study at Kouya Mountain, even if I'm not there right now…" he mumbled.

"Failed monk," the Miko snorted.

Right. So that left the baby faced foreigner, but there was no way someone that young could be a Priest. The kid hovered at the edge of their circle with a worried pinch to his eyebrows. His bright blue eyes were still focused on the door Mai had gone through. Naru jutted his chin in his direction, "and you?"

"Me? O-oh," he bowed deeply, his Kansai accent making his Japanese sound strange, "John Brown. I'm an exorcist."

Exorcist? It took all his control to keep the surprise off Naru's face. The Miko and Bou-san had no such control. They stared openly, their budding argument all but forgotten.

Naru gave a coy smile, "How old are you, Brown-san?"

"I'm 19," he said, proudly, blue eyes wide, "but I look younger."

"Still," Bou-san interjected. The Miko was still dumbfounded beside him, glaring at Brown like he was a powerful adversary. "That's pretty impressive. Ranking higher than a Priest at just 19?"

Brown shrugged it off with a gentle smile, "That's right. You are very knowledgeable."

Naru took a step back. The principal must not want to take any chances, bringing in a ghost hunter, a monk, a Miko, and an Exorcist. He must really believe the old school house is dangerous. Or, at least, he didn't believe any one person was capable of solving the case alone. With what he knew about the principal, Naru wouldn't doubt the second option.

"And what about your friend?"

Hm? Naru glanced up at Brown-san, confused.

"Friend?" He asked aloud, following the foreigners gaze over his shoulder. He instantly recognized the blur of black hair as it disappeared behind a tree, sighing loudly, "Kuroda-san..."

He hadn't exactly expected her to heed his warning, but he hadn't expected to see her so soon. Realizing her cover had been blown, Kuroda-san slid out from her hiding place with a meek wave. She looked frazzled as she approached them cautiously, "Shibuya-san—" her voice dropped to a whisper when she felt the strangers' gazes on her, "w-who are these people?"

Naru shrugged, not caring if the other heard him, "A priestess, a monk, and an exorcist. The principal hired them to investigate the old school house."

"Really?" Kuroda-san bowed, glancing between the three as a small blush tinted her cheeks, "It's nice to meet you. Do you think you will be able to exorcise the ghosts in the old school building?"

Matsuzaki arched a pretty eyebrow, scrutinizing the dark haired teen before she nodded. "Yes. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Ah, thank goodness." The girl's face cracked into a smile. "I've been hoping someone would be able too. The ghosts in this place always give me an uneasy feeling."

"You?" Matsuzaki waved Kuroda away with a frown, "That can't be possible."

Kuroda flinched back at the Miko's icy tone, "I-I have strong psychic powers... I've seen the spirits here numerous timesー"

"Attention lover."

Naru watched the exchange with increasing interest as Matsuzaki lifted her nose into the air with a knowing smirk. "You like attention, don't you? Do you want to be noticed that much?" She pressed, leveling the girl with an intense stare.

Bou-san seemed to see the same thing as he lifted his finger to his chin, nodding along, "You're right. She does not have any psychic ability."

Naru, who agreed adamantly with the priestess, was too curious to stop himself from asking, "How do you know?" He had abilities himself, yet he was never able see those abilities in others. Gene chalked it up to his own overwhelming aura, that is cancelled out others'. Naru vaguely wondered if they could sense his powers.

The Miko and Bou-san turned their attentions to him, the former looking much too happy with herself. "I can tell by looking," she responded coolly. "This girl possesses no psychic ability. She just wants attention. She's been tricking everyone. You can't sense any spirits, can you?" The Miko shot another scornful look at the girl before turning around.

"Yes I can!" Kuroda-san insisted, "I'mーI'll summon a spirit into my body to prove it to you."

"Kuroda-san!" Naru shouted. He knew just how dangerous summoning a spirit could be, even Gene, a supposed 'perfect medium' had trouble controlling it. If Kuroda was really able to do that sort of thing... He just couldn't stand by. Naru held out his arm to try to keep the teen from storming off but she danced out of his reach.

"...My psychic powers really are strong..." she said, voice thick. Naru thought he saw tears forming but she turned away, seething, "You'll regret doubting me."

Matsuzaki didn't bat an eyelash as they all watched the teen scurry away. "...I'll be waiting."

A/N: A humongous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for all their hard work on making this chapter presentable! They both have awesome fics of their own so be sure to check them out!

Edited 3.29.17

ELV


	4. Storm Warning

Chapter 3  
Storm Warning

Shortly after Kuroda-san's outburst the old school house had filled with tension. Naru and the others had made their way inside, splitting up on the main floor. Naru found Mai back at base, mumbling irritably as she gathered a handful of video tapes.

"Mai-chan," he said slowly, confused by the numbers scrawled neatly across each one. "What are you doing?"

"I'm changing the tapes."

"Oh," he tried not to sound irritated as he felt her pushed past him and into the hall. He followed her close behind, "What's wrong with the old ones?"

"They're about to run out of film." Mai slipped into the first classroom on the left, pulled out the old tape from the camera and replaced it with a new one. She repeated this process throughout all of the rooms on the top floor, him following her all the while.

They were both silent in their endeavor until, in the western most classroom, Mai tripped. She was grumbling under her breath as they had just passed Takigawa-san in the hallway, and seemingly tripped over nothing, tumbling forward into the lone desk in the room.

"Oww~"

"What happened?" Naru asked, trying not to laugh at her pain but secretly hoping the camera had caught all that. "Are you okay?"

She glared at him over her shoulder, "I'm fine... but..." she trailed off, turning back to the floor. "Does it seem like the floor is... tilted?"

Tilted? Naru took a step forward, then another. It did almost feel like the classroom was dipping in the center, but it was a slight feeling. Another few steps in and he couldn't tell anymore. "Are you sure you're not just clumsy?"

Mai huffed angrily, pulling the tape from the camera, "Well, if you're going to make fun of me then here, take these." She shoved a handful of the used palm-sized video tapes into his arms.

He obliged, carrying them down and back up the stairs when they'd finished changing the ones on the bottom floor. He hadn't realized just how many cameras they'd set up in the old school house. He must have been carrying at least 15 tapes by the time they got back to base, but Mai hadn't complained again. "Now what?"

Mai sighed, collapsing into the chair beside the laptop and hitting a button rather hard on the keyboard. All of the screens flashed an iridescent blue. "Now we review the recordings from last night."

She plucked one of the tapes from his arms and pushed it into the slot of a big black box. It made a whirring noise.

"Oh?" Naru neatly stacked the hoard of video tapes on the side of the large desk, recalling Gene's firm declaration. There are no spirits in the old school house. "Do you think we will find anything interesting?"

"It's possible. But the first day of an investigation is usually all creaky floorboards and windows rattling—" Mai waved her hand as if to say 'etcetera', "—the usual. Nothing that can't be explained by outside forces like wind."

"So," he leaned idly against the desk, attempting to decipher the jumble of notes she'd written on the notepad beside them, but it was all a jumble of Japanese and English, "what do you think? Yesterday you seemed pretty convinced there wasn't any spirits here."

Mai's lips curved up into a small smile but gazed dejectedly at the keyboard. At least she wasn't angry anymore. "It's hard to say. Are there no ghosts here? Or are they just shy?... It's possible we won't get any activity for a few days."

Days? Naru sulked, knowing he'd surly be dragged along no matter how long it took. "Is that normal?"

"It's not abnormal for spiritual activity to decline while strangers are present. Spirits are quite shy, after all."

Naru rolled his eyes heavenward. "No wonder there aren't many professional ghost hunters," he said under his breath, "It's god-awful boring."

She gave him a dirty look, "To the closed-minded, maybe."

"E-Excuse me—" The blond exorcist was standing nervously in the doorway, blue eyes wide, "Is it alright if I help out here?"

Naru righted himself, stepping to the side, "Mai-chan this is Brown-san. He's an exorcist."

"I know." Mai stood, clasping her hands behind her back in a way that made her look a bit like a young school girl. With that thought, Naru wondered if Mai actually attended school. "You may do whatever you like, Brown-san, but if you're an exorcist you should be able to cleanse this place without much effort."

Brown-san rubbed his neck, embarrassed, "Not exactly. Plus, I'd rather help here. And please, call me John."

Mai nodded and sat back down. "Right now we're reviewing tapes from last night, but the likelihood this building being haunted is seeming less and less likely."

"At this point," he said chuckling as he approached, "I can't tell if that's a good thing or not."

Naru quietly hummed his agreement. Half of him expected nothing to come from this investigation, but half of him didn't want to know he wasted his time, either.

"Oh, I didn't ask you your name. You're Taniyama-san's assistant, right?" John asked, looking a little embarrassed.

Naru paused, then nodded, "You could say that." He sent a look of disdain toward Mai but she had already turned back to the rows of monitors, "More like free help. Kazuya Shibuya." He bowed slightly and John followed.

"Pleasure to meet you, Shibuya-san."

"Likewise." Something moved on the screen, drawing his attention. On the top right monitor, Takigawa-san was moving slowly down the hallway, examining the walls. On the middle screen, Matsuzaki-san was standing in the middle of a classroom. "Who is that?"

He and Mai simultaneously leaned closer to the monitor on the bottom shelf, the one that was focused on the downstairs atrium and the fall bookcase. A young, doll-like figure stood beside the mess of broken glass, examining it. For a split-second, Naru felt his heart stop. Was she a ghost? Her short, black hair shimmered in the light, framed by her old-fashioned flower kimono. She suddenly looked up at the camera with dark eyes, then disappeared up the stairwell.

"What-What was that?" Naru asked, searching the other screens, but the girl was already moving out of frame of the upper hallway's camera.

Mai ignored him. She rose to her feet, halfway to the door when it opened, revealing the doll-like girl. Naru breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a regular girl, granted she was dressed rather unusually.

"Masa-chan!" Mai yelled happily, enveloping the girl in a hug.

'Masa-chan' didn't return the hug, but blushed, "Hello, Mai-chan. It's nice to see you again."

"It's been so long~"

Naru watched the interaction, absolutely positive there was something familiar about the raven-haired girl. He squinted at her girlish face, trying to remember… oh.

He bit back a laugh. It wasn't often the twins spent their time watching television, but they had seen a handful of episodes of "Spirits Within", a reality show revolving around a young medium, dressed in a floral kimono as she cleansed the spirits of the dead.

"Everyone," Mai detached herself from the black-haired girl, turning brightly to the rest of the room, "this is my friend and psychic medium, Masako Hara." Mai offered brightly, "Masa-chan, this is Brown-san, an exorcist, and Shibuya-san, a student at this school."

"Pleasure to meet you, Hara-san." John bowed politely.

Naru forced a smile and bowed. The principal must really hold no respect for BSPR if he was bringing in a famous psychic. Suddenly, he found himself wishing for Gene. From what he'd seen, and what he was willing to believe, Hara-san was good, but she was flashy and indignant. "What's your assessment of the building, Hara-san? Are their spirits here?"

Hara-san quickly averted her eyes from his, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She nodded, hiding behind the draping sleeve of her kimono. "I've only just arrived, but... I don't sense any lingering spirits."

Naru shot Mai a meaningful look. "Really?" He asked.

Just as he suspected. There were no such things as ghosts.

"Aiiieeee!" A loud shriek echoed through the building.

Naru jumped just as a loud knocking sound filled the silence between screams. He turned to Mai, but she looked just as frightened.

"That sounded like Matsuzaki-san!" John shouted, "Where is she?"

Naru rushed to the monitors, searching them for the redheaded woman. "She's downstairs, last room on the left!" He'd barely finished his sentence before he and the others hurried out of the room.

John was the first to reach the room, shouting for Matsuzaki-san to stay calm. He pulled at the door, grunting with effort, but it wouldn't budge. "It's stuck!"

"What do you mean 'it's stuck'?" The Miko shouted through the door, banging on it with her fist, "Get me out of here!"

Takigawa-san appeared suddenly joining his strength with the Priest's, but the door barely moved. Naru searched the door for a weak spot, spotting something shiny glinting in the doors track.

"We're going to have to force it open," the Monk suggested, stepping back, "Ayako, move away from the door!"

"Don't call me by my first name!" Matsuzaki-san screamed back, but her voice was noticeably further away.

Takigawa-san lurched forward, landing a solid kick to the doors middle hinges. The wood cracked, but it still didn't open. He kicked again and this time the door came tumbling down, splintered completely in half.

Matsuzaki-san didn't waste any time dashing out of the room, red faced.

"What happened?" John asked, attempting to calm her.

The Miko huffed angrily, "I don't know! I walked in for just a second and the door shut by itself and then it wouldn't open."

Naru half listened as he approached the doorway, kneeling down to examine the shiny object. It was a nail.

That's odd.

It took two tries, but the nail gave way under Naru's strength, coming loose from its position.

Mai gazed curiously at the nail in Naru's hands, directing her question to the still panicking Miko. "You're sure you didn't lock it by accident?"

"Who do you think I am?" Matsuzaki-san roared, indignant.

"What kind of psychic starts panicking when a door locks on them?" Hara-san taunted, "I would be embarrassed if I were you."

Naru stepped back, away from the pending argument. The nail seemed... empty in his hands. It held no impression of life that he could read. He sighed.

Matsuzaki-san stared at the young medium. "And who are you?"

Takigawa-san's eye's widened as if he had just noticed Hara-san for the first time, "You look a lot like that famous medium, Masako Hara."

Hara-san leveled the Monk with a dirty glare, "That's because I am her."

"Why… don't we all take a breather at base?" Mai suggested, taking the nail from Naru and twirling it around her fingers. "It seems we need to figure some things out."

.

.

"And you're sure you didn't lock the door and forgot?" Mai pressed for the fifth time.

They'd been at it for what felt like hours, looking back over the tapes for evidence of a ghost – but the film had mysteriously gone static when they pulled up the feed. As Mai tried to figure out what went wrong with the machines, everyone pestered the priestess with the same questions over and over.

"I am absolutely sure!" She shouted, becoming redder and redder with anger (or maybe embarrassment), "I just stepped in the room for a second and the door shut by itself."

"Aren't you being a bit overdramatic?" Hara-san added coldly.

Matsuzaki-san's brown eyes burned with contempt. "At least I'm not a fake psychic whose popularity is based solely on her looks," she spat crossly.

Hara-san hid her blush behind her kimono sleeve. "Thanks for the compliment."

The Miko glared daggers but turned decidedly away from the medium. "Well," she said airily, "I think we're dealing with a Jibakurei."

Naru's face went blank at the word, but didn't want to embarrass himself by asking what it meant. Fortunately, Mai had a habit of rephrasing things, "You think this is the work of an earthbound spirit?"

Takigawa shook his head in disagreement, "Didn't a teacher commit suicide in this building? And what about the child that was murdered? When you start to look at all those traumatic events, a residual haunting makes more sense."

Mai folded in on herself, contemplating. "It's definitely possible…" she turned to the young blond Priest, "What do you think it is, John-kun?"

"I'm not sure," he said with a disarming smile, "but wouldn't it be best not to jump to conclusions so early on in the investigation?"

"You're right," Mai agreed, "for now, we will just focus on recording evidence."

"If that's what you want, then fine." The old Miko stood, flicking her long red hair over her shoulder, "I'll be rid of it tomorrow, whatever it is."

Takigawa-san watched the Miko leave with a pensive expression. "I'm still not convinced there is a spirit here at all. What do you guys think?"

Hara-san stood too, barely making a sound as she walked to the door, "That's because there are no spirits here. Every school is bound to have a rumor about such an old building being haunted, but it doesn't make them all true." She glanced backward at Mai, "I'll wait to report my findings to the principal until you have finished your investigation, Mai-chan. Goodnight."

"Thanks, Masa-chan. Goodnight!"

With one last glance toward Naru, the young medium was gone.

"I guess it's getting a bit late," Takigawa-san was the next to stand, stretching as he gestured to the window streaked with the reds and yellows of the sunset. "You two aren't staying here, are you?"

"No," Mai answered quickly, following to her feet, "At least, not today. We just need to move some equipment into the room on the west side, where most of the rumors of ghost activity take place."

Naru heard that as, "Naru, move the equipment into the west classroom," and sighed, gathering a few cameras.

John was the last to his feet, offering to help him carry some of the equipment.

Twenty minutes later, all of the cameras and microphones were up and running, John had bid them good night, and Naru was gazing longingly out the large windows. Mai was just jotting down a few last minute notes, tapping away on the keyboard. "You can go home now, Naru-chan. But, please do try to be on time tomorrow."

"Mai-chan," Naru droned, recalling his plans to sleep in the next morning. After last night's insomnia and all the commotion today he was feeling especially drained, "tomorrow's Sunday—"

"Ahh, you called me by my first name."

Naru gave her a flat look and crossed his arms. Had she really not noticed he'd been calling her that all day? "You did the same to me. Consider us even."

She cocked her head to the side in such a way that her bangs fell across her eyes and she looked more her age then she had before. He dared even say she looked… cute. But that was just the sleep talking.

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head to rid himself of the thought, "Never mind," he said airily, waving his hand as he started for the door, "see you tomorrow, Mai-chan."

.

.

"Why are you here, Kuroda-san?" Naru asked, a certain chill in his voice. He was still irritable over being forced to work before 10 o'clock on a Sunday, and didn't like being surprised by unexpected guests. He had arrived at base to find the dark-haired girl standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, surrounded by the expensive looking equipment, and Mai nowhere to be found. "There isn't any school today."

Kuroda-san spun on her heel, a frightened, doe-like look about her face. "I-I know... I just... wanted to see how you were doing, but..." A blush crept up her cheeks as she continued, staring intently at the floor, "I was... attacked. Someone pulled my hair a-and when I turned around it-it started choking me."

"Really…" He drawled for lack of anything less critical to say. He was confident in his belief that the old school house wasn't haunted, not in the least bit. Whether that was from Mai's data or Hara-san's and Gene's own assertions, he couldn't be certain.

Kuroda-san must have been able to sense his disbelief as she threw him an intense scowl. "You don't believe me? It's true!"

He stared blankly at her, feeling lost. If what she was saying was true, then that meant both his brother and Mai were wrong. Could it be…?

"Check the tapes if you don't believe me!"

Naru sighed, defeated. "Where did this happened?"

"Just down the hall from here. I-I got scared so I just… ran in here. But no one else was here."

He turned toward the computer, trying to remember what he'd seen Mai do last night. Gene had always been better with computers then he had. Ah, this button. Naru pressed the 'F' key and a dialogue box appeared on the laptop's screen. He clicked camera number 4 (the camera currently recording the upstairs corridor) and paused, turning to Kuroda-san.

"When was this?"

"Just a few minutes ago…"

The time was currently 9:15. He typed in the numbers 9:05 and hit enter. All the monitors flashed blue before each one showed the same image of the upstairs hallway. The numbers at the bottom of the screens flashed the time in white text as a long haired teen moved into view of the camera.

Kuroda-san moved closer. "It was right there," she said, pointing to the bottom left corner of the screen just as the digital recording of herself walked toward that area.

Suddenly, all the cameras went fuzzy.

"Wha—" Naru hit several buttons but the monitor stayed snowy gray, "What happened?"

"If you break my equipment," Mai had appeared in the doorway, arms full of thick folders, "You will pay to repair it, Shibuya-san."

He jumped back from the keyboard and monitors, hands up, "It's not broken," he gave a nervous smirk, "r-right, Mai-chan?"

Mai deposited the folders onto the desk, gazing idly up at the snowy video feed. "What were you trying to do?"

"Err..."

"I was attacked." Kuroda-san blurted, "Shibuya-san was trying to view it on the cameras."

"Oh?" Mai quirked an eyebrow at him, reaching for the keyboard, "where was this?"

"The upstairs hallway about five after nine." Naru offered.

Mai gave an appreciative nod, rewinding the tape. "I'm surprised you know how to work with this software, Naru-chan," she said, watching Kuroda-san's digital double walk down the hallway before erupting into static again. She rewound the tape a second time, "I guess you are smarter than you look."

Naru directed an icy glare to the back of her head, mumbling, "I'm a straight A student, you know."

She ignored him, "There's nothing wrong with the tape. It almost looks like some type of interference with the recording."

"What does that mean?" Naru asked, relieved to not have actually broken anything.

"Well, it's true that technology tends to malfunction when spirits are present…" Mai replayed the segment again, leaning closer to the screen, "but Masako-chan said she felt no such spirits here."

"She's wrong. There are spirits here!"

Mai turned slowly from the cameras, searching Kuroda-san's face with mute confusion, "She's been wrong before, I guess. But I think I can trust her on this."

"Hara-san's been wrong about a haunting before?" Naru thought of Gene, but he guessed they wouldn't call him the 'perfect medium' if his abilities were ever in question.

Mai shook her head, "Never on anything this big. Female mediums are notorious for being either completely right, or way off track. But Masako-chan is usually very reliable."

She sighed as footsteps and voices suddenly sounded from the downstairs hallway. "I guess they're ready for the Miko's exorcism."

.

.

Someone had cleaned up the fallen shelf and shattered glass from the entry way and had erected a white alter in its stead.

Takigawa-san was standing by the doorway, watching the Miko and principal chat while an old teacher buzzed about, making preparations. "Do you guys think this will work?"

Naru thought the Monk's tone was rather misleading. His expression was interested, but his voice practically screamed boredom. Instead of answering, Naru shrugged, "I've never seen a Shinto exorcism before."

"Me either," John said, taking his place on the other side of Mai, "I think it'll be interesting to watch."

Hara-san, who had arrived a few minutes earlier, made a rather unbecoming 'hmph!' sound. "It's not necessary. There are no spirits here," she said, earning a murderous glare from Kuroda-san. She opened her mouth as if to retort but Mai shushed her.

Mai didn't offer her thoughts, but indicated to the others that the exorcism was starting. She was watching the Miko intensely as she waved a bamboo stick with white slips of paper fluttering at the end.

"With all the respect from the depth of our hearts  
We ask that they hear us,"

Naru blinked, biting back a yawn. It was no wonder he had never visited a Shinto shrine before. It sounded very monotonous.

"Such as the spirit that hears our  
intent, with sharpened ears, together with  
Spirits of the Sky and the Land,"

Will this really exorcise the spirits? It seemed all the Miko was doing was spouting nonsense and waving around a bamboo stick. He almost turned to ask Mai exactly that but stopped himself. She was chewing on her bottom lip, concentrating more on the floor than the exorcism.

"Take the badnesses, disasters and sins and purify all." The Miko clasped her hands together in one final prayer, then laid the stick carefully down on the alter. "There, it's done."

The principal clapped his hands together, joyful, "Well, then! Why don't we have dinner to celebrate?" He directed a flashy smile at the Miko, a badly hidden attempt at flirting.

Matsuzaki-san smiled back, "I should stay here a bit longer to make sure the exorcism was indeed successful."

"Of course, of course!" He bowed to the Miko, red-faced, "that's very considerate of you, Miko-san. The school thanks you for your service."

The lightbulb hanging above Mai suddenly burst, showering them all with shards of glass and mercury. Naru threw his hands up to protect his head as a loud, ominous rasping sound echoed through the hall.

Everyone turned toward the sound of creaking as a long crack appeared, running through the ceiling.

Mai had clasped onto his shirt and was now pulling him backwards. "It's going to collapse!" She shouted over a loud bang! The windows suddenly bowed in, then shattered, spraying larger shards of glass. There was a deafening crash! And the whole building shook, then stilled.

"Is everyone okay?" Takigawa-san asked. Everyone was looking around, waiting for the whole school to collapse.

Mai tugged on his sleeve again, dragging him backward, "Everybody needs to get out. There's no telling how unstable the building has become."

Everyone hurried out of the building, the teacher leading the principal back towards the school to tend a few cuts from the shattered windows. John and Takigawa had briefly disappeared into the old school building to survey the damage, and Mai had been anything but happy when they came back with a piece of a shattered camera.

Apparently, the western most roof had collapsed and destroyed everything inside. They were lucky they hadn't been up there when it had happened.

"I told you there were spirits here, " Kuroda-san said angrily, brushing the lightbulb shards from her hair, "now look what you've done."

Matsuzaki-san shot her a dirty look. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't change that fact that it's too dangerous for us to stay here now. We will have to try again after we know the building is safe, "she said, brushing off the last of the glass from her Miko outfit.

Mai raised her fist to her chin, mumbling, "You're right." She still had tiny shards of glass shimmering in her hair.

"Of course I'm right!"

"What do you mean, Mai-chan?" Naru asked. She isn't scared because of the collapse, is she?

"I mean you should go home, Naru-chan." Mai turned her back to them, "You, too, Kuroda-san. It's too dangerous here."

Takigawa-san and John shared a look.

"I guess we should go too?" John asked.

Takigawa shrugged, "If no one else is going to stay."

Naru rolled his eyes at their retreating forms. They were all scared, but didn't want to say it out loud. He followed Mai back to the van. She didn't look like she was packing up to leave. Rather, she was jotting something down in a notebook.

"You're staying?" Naru asked. The others had already disappeared behind the school's gate.

Mai nodded, "I have a feeling this activity isn't caused by spirits, but I need more evidence. And soon, before more people end up hurt."

"Then I'll stay too."

She leveled him with a flat look, looking very boss-like as she said, "Go home, Naru-chan. It's too dangerous for you to be here."

He gestured to the old school house, which somehow seemed extra creepy in the dusk light. "It's too dangerous to leave you here alone. What if another part of the roof collapses on top of you? Someone's got to be here to pull your body from the wreckage," he said, waving her off. He also didn't feel much like going back to the empty apartment, anyway. Not when he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep.

Mai considered him for a moment, then shrugged, smiling, "If that's what you want then fine. Though, do at least try to save me from the collapsing building first."

Despite himself, Naru chuckled, "I'll consider it."

.

.

The time on the recording machine blared a bright red 3:30AM. Naru obediently scribbled it down on the note pad along with the current temperature and ion readings from the cameras inside. Mai was balanced on the edge of the van, looking over charts and littering them with small red circles. He had asked her what she was researching hours ago, but "water vein" was the only answer she gave and he had no inkling of what that could mean.

Is there a water vein running under the school? Is it… dangerous? Naru sighed and leaned back against the van's inner wall. He had taken up residence inside the van after the temperature outside had dropped significantly. It was much warmer surrounded by the whirring instruments.

But the warm air was starting to make him sleepy. He yawned into his hand, pulling his legs up to his chest. It would be counterproductive to fall asleep now. What if Mai decided to go into the building while he was asleep and really did end up getting hurt? And it was almost time to get up, anyway. There was no point in falling asleep now…

He yawned again, accidently dropping his pen.

"It's okay to sleep, Naru-chan." Mai pushed herself backwards, further into the van. She had goosebumps down her arms and legs and he realized just how cold she must have been. And here he was, taking up all the warmth.

He scooted closer to the cameras, trying to avoid accidently knocking one of its shelf. "No, I'm okay. I'm keeping an eye on the recordings, remember?" When they had first started, Mai had rigged the recordings to display on one of the monitors they'd left in the van so that neither of them had to stay in the unstable building.

Mai laughed softly, "Whatever you say."

They lapsed back into silence and Naru gazed absently at the camera feed. Nothing interesting had happened in the last four hours, and he would bet anything he had that nothing would happen in the next four, either. His eyelids drooped, blurring his vision. Would it really be that bad? He wouldn't be able to concentrate for much longer anyway, and then how much help would he be?

Naru let his eyes fall closed, falling asleep to the quite sound of Mai's yawn.  
.~.

A/N: A humongous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for all their hard work on making this chapter presentable! They both have awesome fics of their own so be sure to check them out!

Edited 3.29.17

ELV


	5. Storm Surge

"Dialogue in English."  
"Normal dialogue."  
"Dialogue with written Japanese."

Chapter 4  
Storm Surge

The building... the building is going to collapse... Naru rolled onto his side, breathing in shallow gasps. He could practically feel the ground shaking beneath him with the force of it. I have to... warn Mai...

Amidst the commotion, an underused apparatus shuddered free from its spot on the shelf and fell, whacking the slumbering boy in the shoulder with a muted thud.

Naru jerked awake, a shout falling flat on his lips as he blinked. The monitor from last night had been turned off, the clipboard he used lying abandoned beside it. Was he still in the SPR van? His memory of last night was fuzzy, and he couldn't quite remember falling asleep, but — the schoolhouse!

Stomach in his throat, Naru scrambled to the edge of the van, nearly colliding a very stunned Mai as she deposited a large spool of wires in the space beside him. "Oh, you're awake."

"Mai!" He interrupted, sweat slipping down the side of his face as he leaned sideways to see past her, "the old schoolhouse! It's — it's…"

Mai turned to follow his gaze, expression curious, "It's what?"

Still standing?Naru sank back on his heels, mind reeling as he searched the old, rotting building. But it looked exactly the same as it had the night before, shattered windows and all. He could still hear the crunch of the wood as the building fell, but it hadn't fallen.

"Are you all right, Naru-chan? You look pale."

Naru's heart thumped hard in his chest. He glanced back at Mai, who had turned to him with a puzzled crease to her eyebrows, and tried not to think of how he must look to her; crazy with a pinch of bedhead. "I'm okay. Just a… bad dream…" he mumbled the last bit to himself.

Mai nodded as if she had expected this. "I get them, too," she said, producing a small plastic cup from the side of the van and pushing it into his trembling hands, "here, this helps. It might be a little cold, but it should do the trick."

With a small bow he accepted the cup, peering down at the dark liquid. It smelled sweet, herbal. Hesitantly, he took a sip. Not exactly his cup of tea, but it wasn't bad either. Chamomile, if he had to guess. The warmth of it lingered on his lips and he felt the panic slowly subside. "Um, thanks..."

"I figured you were a tea person," she beamed, taking sip from her own cup.

Not knowing what to say to this, Naru stared at the cup in his lap, studying his distorted reflection and let the conversation lapse into silence. Mai didn't seem to mind as she pushed the roll of wires aside and sat on the lip of the van beside him.

Naru studied the wires as if seeing them for the first time, "Are you leaving?"

"Huh?" she paused mid-sip, turning her large brown eyes on his, "Oh, yes, I am."

He looked dubious. "Are you... giving up?"'

She glared. "No."

"...You've solved the case?"

"I have," her tone insinuated that she had more to say, but she simply blew idly into her tea cup.

"So," he pressed, "is the old school house haunted?

Her lips stretched into a wide, teasing grin as she shrugged, "who knows."

.

.

"Hey! What's going on?" Matsuzaki-san asked, gesturing to the equipment surrounding the van, waiting to be put back into its proper place.

Naru ignored her, rubbing his temples in an attempt to pacify the persistent throbbing in his head. "Please keep your voice down. It's much too early for yelling."

"I'm not yelling," she said, folding her arm across her chest.

"...could have fooled me." Takigawa-san intoned from beside her, a hand over his mouth to hide his mirth.

"You are being a bit loud, Miko-san…" John offered sheepishly.

The three had arrived at the school just after the toll of the morning bell, bickering as John had played counselor. Naru almost felt bad for the young exorcist, stuck in the center of an ever-losing battle. The monk and priestess fought too often for two people who had never met before a few days ago. So much so that he would argue they were beginning to act just like a married couple. With an inward laugh, he banished the thought.

"Taniyama-san!" Matsuzaki called as Mai hauled yet another handful of expensive monitors across the walkway.

"Konnichiwa," Mai greeted in a crisp tone. Evidently, she was one to hold a grudge. Her tone softened considerably as she smiled at the priest. "Hello, John."

"Hello, Mai-chan."

Takigawa-san stepped forward, relieving Mai of the heavy equipment and setting it down beside the rest. "Are you getting ready to leave?"

"I am."

Matsuzaki-san smirked, eyes narrowed in smug satisfaction. "So, you're giving up?"

Disdain painted Mai's expression, "Why is that everyone's first conclusion?"

"Well? You mean you're not?" Takigawa-san set his hands on his hips as if he were about to scold a young child. "Don't tell me you've managed to exorcise the spirit on your own?"

"There was no need." Mai stopped to pull a hunk of files from the cab of the van. She waved them indignantly, offering Naru a coy smile, "the old schoolhouse isn't haunted, after all."

"What do you mean 'not haunted'?" The self-proclaimed priestess pointed to the shattered windows, "then how can you explain that? Or how I was locked inside?"

Mai's confidence didn't waver as she offered the files for the others to read, "Land subsidence."

"What?" Matsuzaki-san snatched the files out of her hand, immediately opening it to a two-page spread of maps. She seemed to be trying to decipher the graphs for a moment before she flipped the page, only to find more detailed maps and graphs. "It's just a bunch of graphs. I don't understand how this proves anything."

Naru, John, and Takigawa-san peered over her shoulder. Naru couldn't make much sense of it either, but looked upon the geological map with curiosity. This specific map was littered with small, numbered, red circles. Beside it was another similar map labeled 'water diagram', but there were no notes written on it. In all, it was very difficult to understand.

Mai reached over, flipping the file open to a graph that was labeled 'level-scale graph' and pointing to the single red circle on the page. "This is the abandoned schoolhouse. According to these graphs, it sank nearly 0.51 millimeters last night."

Naru turned to look back at the looming building. It... sank?

Matsuzaki-san closed the file with a stubborn snap. "I don't believe it. You're saying the windows shattered and the roof collapsed because of land subsidence?"

"And not because of Miko-san's botched exorcism?" Takigawa-san prodded.

"My exorcism was successful!"

"No, it wasn't," Mai interrupted, sounding eerily similar to her medium friend, "because there are no spirits. The old schoolhouse was doomed to become unstable from the moment it was built. It was originally built on damp soil, which weakened the structure significantly."

"So… the land they built on was too soft?" John asked. "And that is causing the building to sink now?"

"Exactly. There also used to be a major water vein running beneath the building, but now that it's dried up, the land is unable to support the weight of the building and the ground is beginning to collapse in on itself, taking the old building with it. As for the so-called 'supernatural occurrences' — the west side of the building is sinking the fastest. It's already 7.5 centimeters lower than the east side, resulting in the roof collapsing in the western most classroom."

Naru suddenly recalled thinking something along those lines earlier. "Is that what you were working on all night?"

Pink tinged her cheeks as she nodded, "Yes. I was working off a hunch, but it payed off."

"And the windows shattering in the lower west hall..." Takigawa-san murmured to himself, nodding.

John nodded, too. "It makes sense."

Matsuzaki-san sighed, defeated, "When you say it like that..."

Perhaps it was something else, but Naru couldn't help but feel relieved. The more time he spent around the old schoolhouse the more he felt there was something... off about the place. Strange, creaking noises, and malfunctioning equipment. He had begun to attribute it to the company he had been keeping, but he took solace in knowing there was nothing paranormal about it.

Mai seemed to take pride in the accepting expressions on the Monk's and Priestess's faces, continuing on, "Not only is it collapsing, but it's doing so at an alarming rate. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire building has collapsed before the end of the week."

"Are you saying we were in such a dangerous place this whole time?" Matsuzaki-san asked.

Naru couldn't help but glare at her. Hadn't she just been adamant that the old schoolhouse had been haunted until just a few minutes ago? "We should warn the principal, especially if you think it will collapse soon. It wouldn't be good if curious students were inside when it did." He stressed the word with a bit of annoyance in his tone. It was a little surprising their curious student hadn't made her appearance yet.

"You're right, Naru-chan," Mai nodded approvingly, "but let's retrieve the rest of the equipment first. I'd really rather not lose another camera."

.

.

As it was the closest to the van, Mai had suggested they save the entryway for last, so that their trips to and from the van with the equipment wouldn't be so daunting. But the old building lacked a working air system and Naru found himself wishing he had something less grueling to wear as he tugged at the uncomfortable tightness of his rumpled uniform. The thought of changing into his gym clothes hadn't crossed his mind until the muggy heat of the old building paired with manual labor had turned his school uniform into a sweaty mess. And of course, the monk and the priestess hadn't offered to help.

As he heaved a camera off its tripod, he looked hopefully toward Mai, "Is this the last one?"

"It should be," she paused to think, folding the tripod and rolling up the power cord, "but I'll wait to do a final walk-through until Lin-san gets here. It shouldn't be too long. In the meantime, we should go inform the principal."

Lin-san? Wasn't that the name of Mai's original assistant?

Naru leaned back against one of the rather tattered looking shoe racks, watching her fiddle as he readjusted his hold on the handle. "You're really leaving?"

"Yes," she drawled, glancing sideways at him. "Why? Are you going to miss me?"

He thought of many different ways he could have answered her. Lie and say yes just because it was entertaining to watch her face turn dark red when she was flustered. Or be blunt and say no, that he was happy this absurd dive into fantasy was over with. After a long minute, he simply shrugged ambiguously. "It was certainly interesting—"

"What are you doing?"

Both Naru and Mai turned to face the source of the interruption, the former sighing in irritation.

"Why are you here?" He found himself asking for the second time in as many days, frowning at the black haired girl.

Mai had a much more pleasant expression, smiling as she asked, "Kuroda-san, shouldn't you be in class?"

Kuroda-san fidgeted with her skirt, jutting her chin at Naru. "It's lunch break... Plus, he's skipping class, isn't he?"

"It's not the same," he replied icily, not bothering to hide his glare, "I've been excused for the day."

She seemed dissatisfied with his answer and seemed to be thinking of some remark when she realized they hadn't answered her original question. "Why are you packing up all of the equipment?"

Naru opened his mouth to answer but Mai beat him to it, "The case is closed. There is no longer any need for my services."

"But..." Kuroda-san mumbled, "there are still ghosts here. I can sense them still wandering."

"There are no ghosts." Naru deadpanned, "The building is collapsing from land subsidence. You shouldn't be here anymore, it's too dangerous."

Mai grabbed the last of the wires before heading towards the door, "Naru-chan is right, Kuroda-san. We shouldn't spend any more time here than necessary."

Kuroda-san wouldn't be put off. She stomped her foot childishly, "There are still ghosts here! Why won't you believe me?"

"You're delusional." Naru deadpanned.

She looked taken aback, cheeks burning red as she directed a glare at Naru's shoes, "This place may have land subsidence or whatever you called it, but there are still ghosts here!"

"Kuroda-san." Mai's voice had adopted a dangerous tilt as she leveled the school girl with a cold stare. "My investigation is over. You may do whatever you wish, but my work here is done."

Kuroda-san's hands balled into shaking fists, "...you're wrong."

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Naru glanced behind him at the blank wooden wall, then up at the ceiling. "Is someone… knocking?"

Mai paused mid-stride, slowly turning to face him. "…knocking?"

As if in response to his question, the room was suddenly filled with the sound, the walls shaking with the intensity of the knocking, coming from all directions.

Crack!

He flinched, watching as a long, thin crack ran the length of the windows.

"Mai! Watch out!" He shouted, but it happened too quick. With an earsplitting crunch! the glass exploded, showering them in tiny shards.

Kuroda-san screamed. She collapsed to the floor, rivulets of blood running down her arms as she pushed her hands over her ears. "Make it stop!"

As if coming out of a trance, Mai dashed to the young girl's side, framed in the halo of raining glass.

BANG!

Naru gaped, frozen in place at the sight of the front door. Undisturbed by anyone, the old door had swung open, then closed.

What's going on?

As he watched in horror, it happened again. In an instant there was a chorus of slamming doors and shattering glass. The floor trembled under his feet, the ceiling creaking furiously as if someone were stomping on it.

This is a ghost?

"Taniyama-san! Over here!" Takigawa-san was standing just outside the windows, using the long sleeve of his shirt to protect his elbow as he smashed out the remaining jagged pieces of glass. "The doors have a mind of their own, you're going to have to escape through here."

Mai nodded, pulling a sobbing Kuroda-san over to the lip of the window where John had joined the Monk. Together they managed to help the girl over the window sill without further injury.

"You too, Mai!" John shouted from the outside as Takigawa-san offered his hand to her.

Naru took a step forward to help, but something creaked loudly behind him. It almost seemed like the shoe rack was beginning to sway. With a glance at the expensive camera still at his side, Naru pushed back against it, feeling the warmth of the wood on his back.Wait. Warmth?He half turned to look back at the rotting wood when it lurched violently, all of its weight falling on his shoulders. It was heavy— too heavy to hold.

"Mai!" He shouted, the strain evidence in his voice. "The camera!"

Pale and smeared with blood, Mai turned away from Takigawa's offered hand and sprinted to Naru, relieving him of the heavy camera with surprising ease. "Here. Let me—"

"No," he grunted, knees shaking. If this thing was going to fall on him, he wasn't about to let Mai get hurt, too. "Get out. I'll be right behind you."

Mai looked reluctant to leave, but heaved the camera over to the window, handing it to Takigawa who complained loudly.

As Mai began to climb out the window, Naru's knees buckled and with a strangled cry, he crumbled under the weight of the shoe rack. "Naru-chan!"

.

.

Ow.

A cool breeze blew across his face, accompanied by the feeling of being touched. A soft, warm hand was tapping his stinging cheek as if urging him awake. He wanted to tell whoever it was to stop, to leave him alone, but all that came out was a garbled groan.

"Noll?"

His eyes fluttered open at the familiar voice, attempting to sit up but a pale arm pushed him back down. "Gene?"

Gene smiled at him, a crooked smile that crinkled only half his face. "I wouldn't try moving just yet."

From his place on the floor, Naru recognized the overstocked shelves and boxes of the BSPR van. If his brother hadn't been there, he would have been convinced he was awake, alone and holed up in the back of the van. But Gene's ghostly presence gave everything around him an ethereal glow.

This was obviously a dream. Or… something like that. Actually, he wasn't quite sure where they were, but he knew only Gene and himself had ever been able to access it. Like a physical representation of their internal connection. Usually, Gene brought him here when it was inconvenient in the real world, and right now, he was thousands of miles away. "What happened?"

Gene chuckled, "You tell me. I'm pretty sure I was sleeping when you beckoned me here."

"Me?" Naru asked as the memory of the knocking and slamming doors came rushing back. The brief feeling of pain as the shoe rack crushed him. But he didn't want to tell Gene that, so he shrugged, feeling the ghost of pain streak through his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Well," Gene said dismissively, "at least you're awake now. I slapped you like five times before you did, though."

Naru looked incredulously up at his twin, wondering if the faint sting of his cheek would seep into real life. "…Really."

"Ah, I've got to go," Gene announced. Naru couldn't help but think his image was getting a little blurry as if going out of focus. "I think I can hear my alarm clock ringing."

Naru sat up, no longer barred by Gene's arm. "I don't hear anything."

"Of course you can't, dummy." Gene laughed out, getting to his feet. It should have been impossible in the small space of the van, but Naru had to remind himself that this wasn't real. "And don't let anything else fall on your while I'm not there."

"How did you—"

"I may not be in Japan, but I'm still your brother." Gene said, bending down to tap his little brother on the forehead. "Don't push yourself too hard, Noll. Get some rest."

Naru didn't bother to fight the wave of sleepiness that washed over with him the touch of Gene's hand, used to this type of send-off. He laid back down, eyes drooping closed as Gene's now translucent figure faded.

"See you soon."

.

.

Naru groaned loudly, pinching his eyes shut. His head and back ached, whether from sleeping on the floor of the BSPR van or being crushed by the shoe rack, he wasn't sure. But the pain meant that he must be awake now, as much as he wished he wasn't.

"Are you alright?"

He cracked an eye open at the unfamiliar voice, startled to find an abnormally tall, one-eyed, white collared man staring back at him. He looked ethnic, but not Japanese. Chinese maybe? "Who...?"

Naru slowly pushed himself upright, holding his head in his hand to ease the dizziness. Other than the stranger before him, there was no one else to be seen. In his new position it was easier to see that the man didn't have one eye, but merely long black bangs that hid his left eye from view.

"Koujo Lin."

So this was the assistant Mai had been talking about? Naru had to admit he hadn't imagined said assistant to be so... tall,but he hadn't exactly expected a 16-year-old to own her own company either, even if it was a satellite office. "Where's Mai?"

The overgrown Chinese man's dark eyes narrowed in his direction, "Touring the school."

Was it him, or was there a general air of hostility around them? Instead of answering, Naru merely nodded.

"Naru-chan!" Mai appeared from the school main office, jogging towards the van with a worried smile. "Are you okay? Does your head hurt?"

"I'm fine, just a little sore," he said, ignoring the wave of dizziness as he did. His shoulder ached where he must have taken the brunt of the fall but it didn't really hurt. "Where is everyone?"

"They all left. Takigawa-san carried you here and Matsuzaki-san checked over your injuries, but they left soon after. I'm guessing all the activity scared them off." Mai leaned over the lip of the van, brushing away his bangs with a sweep of her hand across his forehead. "Are you sure you're okay? You're still a little pale. We could take you to the hospital—"

"No!" He said maybe a little too quickly, feeling his cheeks warm under her touch. He leaned backward, tumbling back onto his elbows. "No, I'm fine. Really."

Hurt sparkled in Mai's eyes as she pulled back, leaning on the open door of the van. "If you're sure…"

"I'm sure." It wasn't that he didn't want to go, or that he didn't like hospitals, but rather, he didn't want to deal with the questions from medical staff.

'Where are your parents?'  
'Where do you live?'  
'Aren't you a bit young to live on your own?'

The twins had always had a hard time answering, afraid they would be sent to a state home, or worse.

"Say, Naru-chan," Mai started again, "Can I ask you about Kuroda-san?"

"Um," he stuttered, glad she had moved onto something else so quickly, but unsure what to say, "I don't really know much. She's not in my class."

"Then how do you know her?"

As long as they'd been at the school, the twins had never been placed in the same class. Whether it was school policy or just plain bad luck, Naru was always forced to manage his classes alone, meeting up with Gene at lunch or afterschool. Kuroda-san was in class 2-C with Gene, and was notorious for her stories about the old school house. But Naru didn't feel like talking about Gene right now. That short visit, real or not, felt like it had opened a cavity in his chest that wouldn't go away.

He pulled his legs under him in a sort of comfortable sitting position and shrugged, "Gossip, I guess. The whole school has heard the ghost stories about the old school house. It's kind of like a nana fushigi."

Mai tilted her head to the side, eyebrows drawn together. She glanced sideways at Lin, "Seven wonders?"

Naru volleyed between the pair, unsure, "Uh, yeah. Like urban legends about the school."

"Did Kuroda-san start these rumors?"

"Well, no," he took another sip of his now lukewarm tea, mumbling into the paper cup, "I'm pretty sure they existed before she started here. Now they're just… popular?"

"Popular how?"

"Ah," Naru rubbed his temple, frowning, "you're asking the wrong person."

Mai nodded, flipping back pages on a notebook she pulled from the makeshift computer desk. "What are the six other wonders, then?"

"Um, the second floor stairwells have one less stair coming down than going up — or maybe two." He suddenly regretted not listening to Gene's feverish rant about the school's supposed 'nana fushigi' before the entrance exams last year. It'd seemed like just a stupid school-tale at the time, but of course they had prompted his brother's own improvised investigation on the old school house; one that had produced less than positive results. "Voices in the A/V room… things like that."

"The mural in the art room occasionally resembling faces from famous Emperors' in the Edo period. An extra door sometimes appearing in the East Hall of the third floor," Mai read from the notebook, glancing up to gauge his reaction as she continued, "and the skeleton in the biology room disappearing at midnight. Sound familiar?"

"Including the old schoolhouse, that's only six." Naru leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the notebook. The six nana fushigi were written in a neat list, or what he assumed were the nana fushigi — it was mostly in English and five of them had a thick line through them.

"According to your classmates, no one has ever found the seventh wonder." Mai said, turning to Lin who hadn't said a word since her arrival. "I've already debunked the voices, stairs, mural, and skeleton. That just leaves the old schoolhouse."

Lin regarded her carefully, "Do you still believe the schoolhouse is haunted?"

Mai pushed a finger to her lips, gazing towards the sky as she thought. "Ah, no. At first I thought so. Actually, after all the knocking and what happened to Naru-chan I really thought a spirit was the only explanation, but now I'm not so sure."

Naru's headache pounded harder with the reminder of what happened, "Not sure? Why not?"

She smiled secretively, "It's a secret — but I'll need everyone's cooperation in order for it to work."

"For what to work?"

"If I told you, it would defeat the purpose of a secret, Naru-chan."

Sighing, Naru slid off the lip of the van, stretching so that his shoulders popped rather painfully, "But you need everyone here?"

Mai looked to Lin as he answered with a nod, "Yes, that would be ideal."

"Then leave it to me," he said as the bell rang inside the school, signaling the end of the classes for the day. Or at least, that was what he assumed seeing as the sun was beginning its slow descent below the tree line. Just how long had he been unconscious for?

"Leave it to you?" Mai deadpanned, "from what I've seen, you don't have a very good track record with your teachers."

"The feelings mutual," he replied icily, rubbing his shoulder, "but I'm a top ranking student. If I speak to the principal, I'm sure he'll listen."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Mai laughed, "the sheer size of your pride could be a nana fushigi."

A/N: Another humongous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for their continued hard work!

Edited 3.29.17

ELV


	6. Sunny Forecast

"Dialogue in English." also, "Background dialogue."  
"Normal dialogue."  
"Dialogue with written Japanese."  
Buchou = captain, or boss.

Chapter 5  
Sunny Forecast

"It's not funny," Naru said, frowning at the wall.

Mai's crackling laughter begged to differ. She erupted into hysteric giggles the second he closed the principal's mahogany door behind him. She breathed a deep breath, giggles marring the space between words, "Of course n-not."

It didn't take a genius to figure she was laughing at him. The plan to talk the principal into giving him the contact details of all the irregulars hadn't exactly gone as plan. In fact, it hadn't gone at all. As soon as he'd entered the room, the principal's smile melted into a pensive frown. Naru had only met the principal in person on two other occasions; the welcoming ceremony, and after the second time he skipped cleaning duty. It was safe to say the two were not on good terms but Naru was convinced he wouldn't be turned down.

The principal, Sato-san, a short, foxlike man, had other plans. Before Naru even opened his mouth, he found himself on the receiving end of yet another lecture on time-wasters and 'if-he-was-going-to-make-number-one-on-the-school-list-again-he-should-be-studying-and-not-bothering-his-superiors'. Then he had been practically forced out the door by the man's heavy glare.

Mai, having heard the entire conversation from just outside the door, found this absolutely hilarious. She hadn't stopped laughing since he'd stepped from the principal's office. With one hand pressed flat against her stomach, she cupped the other over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her amusement. "I-I'm sorry."

"Whatever." Naru said, crossing his arms tight over his chest. He hadn't found it the least bit amusing. "What do we do now?"

"Now?" she asked, straightening her white blouse, "Now we continue as planned."

Naru cocked an eyebrow as if to ask 'there was a plan?', but Mai was already pushing the large wooden door open, her amused smile struggling to keep its sincerity as she entered. Naru skittered out of view, racing to press himself up against the wall to keep from being seen. Mai pulled the door shut behind her, but the lock didn't catch. Metal chafed against metal and the door rocked open, just a few inches but enough to see into the bright, sunlit office.

The opportunity was so blatant, he almost refused to believe it wasn't on purpose. He gazed longingly at the open door.

It was too late in the day for there to be anyone still lingering in the halls so there no one to witness his eavesdropping. And really, what would it hurt? If Gene were there, he wouldn't have thought twice about listening in. He may not have been his brother, but Naru felt an unrelenting curious need to know.

He nodded. Having thoroughly convinced himself, he finally inched forward, peering through the hole. At first the only thing he could see was Principal Sato, sitting behind his desk his thick face reddened by exasperation. He hadn't yet noticed Mai as he glared down at paperwork.

"Kocho sensei," he watched as Mai bowed her head politely, her short hair swaying, "good afternoon."

"Taniyama-san!" Sato-san blustered as if he hadn't expected to see her. His cheeks were still as red as they had been when he kicked Naru out, but now his ears were turning a light tinge of pink. "How is the investigation? I hope you are working well with, uh, Hara-san and the others."

"Yes, actually. They have been very helpful to my investigation."

He looked hopeful, "Does that mean you have exorcised the ghosts?"

"Not quite," she said, "but I do believe I have solved the case, yes. That is why I came to see you today. I require their help to prove my theory."

"Th-theory?" Irritation was starting to shine through the cracks of Sato-san's nervous façade, "Taniyama-san, I am not paying you for a theory."

Mai held a sort of apathetic expression that said she was used to people second guessing her methods and her work. She folded her hands over her skirt, "With all due respect, it is impossible to solve a case in my line of work without the proper evidence. SPR is built on the foundation of scienceー"

"I do not care for your science or whatever else you do at this 'SPR'."

There was a moment of silence.

He could only see the side of her face but he could have sworn he saw her seethe. It was an odd expression on her. He was used to seeing it reflected on Gene; a face saved for the truly grating. Naru was suddenly thankful he hadn't done anything to earn this expression.

Mai's hands curled into loose fists. "Sir," she said, bowing deeper than she had before. Her dark hair created a curtain over her face, "you hired me to do a job. Please, allow me to finish."

"The entire west wing of the building has already collapsed. What more can you possibly do that one of the others cannot?"

"The building does not need an exorcism. I believe…" Mai paused, raising her eyes slowly to meet Sato's. Her eyes were piercing, her lips pressed into a thin line. She looked as if she already regretted what she was about to say. "…I believe one of the students is causing the haunting."

One of... the students? How was... was that even possible? Naru held his breath. She didn't think he was the one causing the destruction, did she? He glanced down at his hands. Was he?

Sato blinked slowly, blood draining from his face. He worried the papers on his desk into a pile, then spread them out again. "Is that… is that even possible?"

Mai's answer left no room for disagreement. "Yes."

"H-how do we stop it?"

The edge slowly slid out of Mai's voice, replaced with ease that was too refined and too polished to be natural. Suddenly, Naru was beginning to realize there were two Mai's. The coy, intuitive girl; and the compassionate, steadfast researcher. "We gather all those involved directly with the old-school house and preform what is called automatic suggestion. If it is successful, the case will be solved."

"And if not?" Sato asked, eyes hooded, a smirk stretching his lips. Naru shivered; he looked more like a tanuki than should have been possible. "If it isn't one of my students?"

Mai's chest heaved in a deep sigh, the decision clear on her face before she even spoke. "… I will withdraw my assistance with SPR's sincerest apologies."

She didn't say what she meant, but Naru heard the truth of the statement. If she were wrong, Mai wouldn't just be withdrawing her investigation ー she would be accepting defeat.

Principal Sato heard this too. Almost too fast, he nodded in faux reluctance. "Fine."

Mai mimicked his nod, "In addition to the students, I will need Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, Hara-san, and John-san to be present for the autosuggestion experiment. You yourself should also be present, kocho sensei. As a precaution, of course," she added, seeing the dissent growing in Sato's expression.

"Fine," Sato repeated, shuffling the papers with a certain air of finality. "Which students?"

"Kuroda Naoko-san," Mai said, "and Shibuya Kazuya-san."

Naru started at the sound of his own name, jostling the door. He backed away quickly just in case someone had noticed. Him and Kuroda? He didn't know why he hadn't expected the annoying girl to be included in this 'autosuggestion' experiment when she was so obviously involved with the case from the start. But, besides that, he couldn't quite figure out why his chest tightened at the sound of his full name in Mai's voice.

Taking a breath, he cautiously peaked through the opening.

Sato was jotting down the names on a piece of scrap paper, cringing, too, at the sound of Naru's name. "I will tell them to arrive here tomorrow before first bell. It won't take long, I presume?"

"Not at all," Mai bowed once again, staring at the spot between he feet, "Thank you for your time."

Naru jerked back away from the door just as she turned and pushed it open. She looked less than enthused and no longer anything like the giggly girl he had been laughing at him only minutes ago. Now she sported a serious face, complete with a frown.

"Mai-chan?" He wanted to ask who she thought was causing the activity ー him or Kuroda ー but his chest tightened at the thought. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. So instead, he waited until she had completely closed the door behind her to ask, "What is autosuggestion?"

Mai barely spared him a glance. If she cared that he was listening in, she didn't say anything as she pulled a small silver phone out of her pocket and pushed away at the keys. "You'll see." she said, starting down the hallway.

"Well," he said, sensing he wouldn't be getting any other information on that front. He skipped a step to catch up with her, "What if it doesn't work?"

"It will."

Naru cast her a dubious look, stuffing his hand in his pocket. He didn't like the uncomfortable feeling welling in the pit of his stomach when he thought of her leaving. Though, he had to admit he wouldn't mind never seeing the others again. "How do you know?"

Mai smiled. It was the kind of smile that made Naru instantly aware of which Mai he was looking at. "I've never been wrong."

.

.

School had never before been so boring. Okay, that was a lie, however, considering it was only seven-thirty in the morning and homeroom had yet to start, Naru was sure it was going to be an eternity before he was called into the principal's office.

Despite the earliness, students were already beginning to fill the classroom with the metal scraping of chairs and grumbled good mornings'.

Naru gazed out the window, content to ignore the rest of the room. Usually, he was one of the last to arrive to school, and not because he wanted to. Gene liked to sleep late and take forever in the bathroom no matter how many times Naru woke him or nagged him to hurry up. But Gene had been in England for the last couple weeks and the only thing that kept Naru from being early everyday was his lack of interest. Today, however, was different.

He hardly slept last night, wondering how a person could cause the walls to tremble and doors to slam shut of their own accord. He didn't own a computer or else he would have occupied his time with research and finding out what 'autosuggestion' was. However, he did own a cell phone but all that was good for was texting Gene who wouldn't reply anyway because he didn't have a SIM card. The only other number programmed in his phone was for Soyokaze, the restaurant where Gene worked. No one there would know what 'autosuggestion' was, nor would they speak to him. Unless Chiyoko-san, the manager, answered; then he would never get off the phone.

And so Naru spent the night in this information purgatory where he slipped between waking boredom and dreamless sleep. Safe to say, he'd begun his trek to school as soon as the trains started running. He'd arrived at school before anyone else and now he had to endure the chit chat of arriving before roll-call. He wished he'd stayed in bed.

The only thing he was looking forward to now was finally having some of his questions answered, though it seemed that wasn't going to happen any time soon. The first bell was about to ring and classes would be starting.

He sighed.

"Naru-chan, are you okay?"

He visibly twitched but didn't turn right away. He could see Kuroda's reflection in the plate-glass window, purple braids and all, but he couldn't bring himself to reply. Disappointment filled him. He didn't know why... except maybe that he had been harboring the hope that Mai would suddenly appear. So, it was Mai's voice his unconscious mind had been expecting to hear, not Kuroda's. But something about what she said just sounded just... wrong.

Naru turned slowly, pushing his chair back with his knees as he rose to his feet. He could practically feel the eyes of the entire class shift to him.

Where the classroom had been filled to the brim with laughter and conversation, now it was silent save for a few whispering voices. "Is that Kuroda-san?" he heard someone whisper, "From class 2-C?"

"What is she doing here?"

"Did she just call Shibuya-san 'Naru'?"

He directed an icy glare at his desk and crossed his arms because it seemed the only thing he could do. "You do not call me that," he said evenly despite the anger and unease growing in his chest.

Kuroda picked anxiously at the hem of her skirt, suddenly uncomfortable. Whether from the attention or his anger, it was difficult to tell. "But... Taniyama-san calls you that."

"Yeah, butー" he pinched the ridge of his nose. He would not be goaded into explaining himself, especially when it came to Mai. "What do you want, Kuroda-san?"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay." she explained without looking at him, "When I left yesterday you were unconscious and..."

For the space of a heartbeat, Naru felt oddly conflicted. His neck and shoulders still ached in remembrance of the bookshelf on his back. He also remembered Kuroda had injuries of her own; she hadn't escaped the haunted school house without injury.

"...Are they dating?..."

He had been entertaining the idea of asking if she were okay, but suddenly he didn't feel the need.

Naru glared at the whisperers, falling into his assigned chair perhaps a little too roughly. No matter how irritated he was, Gene would have smiled and faked sincerity, but then Naru wasn't Gene and he was positively derisive. "I'm fine, Kuroda-san."

"Oh," she nodded, glasses glistening in the light. He couldn't make out her expression as she said, "okay."

Naru wished someone would distract the onlookers, to shift the classes' attention away from their awkward plight. Fortunately, as if to answer his silent plea, their home room teacher slid the class door open and everyone found their seats at once.

Unfortunately, as she slid the door closed behind her she said, "Shibuya-san, Kuroda-san, the principal wants to see you."

.

.

When they arrived, everyone else had already taken up their seats. The principal's office was too small to fit all eight of them comfortably, but they somehow managed to arrange the chairs in a semi-circle around the big oak desk. Kuroda was the first to enter, pushing the door open just wide enough for him to see that Hara, Takigawa, Matsuzaki, John, and Principal Sato, were already occupying the majority of the chairs. Mai was standing in the back of the office, hands raised as if she had been speaking. She nodded at them, her mouth pulled into a thin line.

"Sorry were late..." Naru grumbled, taking the only remaining seat.

Kuroda was positively anxious, plucking and pulling at the hem of her skirt, having taken a seat beside the Miko Matsuzaki, who shot her a frothy glare. Naru would have cracked a smile if the principal himself wasn't throwing him a similar expression.

Mai drew the curtains.

"Now that everyone who was involved with the case is accounted for, let us begin," she said. The room was completely dark; Naru couldn't even see his hand when he raised it in front of him. Then a light that had been set out on the principal's desk lit up the room, it's dull red light flashing on and off. On and off. "Everyone, please focus on the light."

Naru found it hard to focus on anything at all. Maybe it was because he was sitting in the dark with the soft red light blaring on his face, or maybe the fact that he hadn't really been sleeping all that well, but he immediately felt sleepy. Keeping his eyes open was becoming harder by the second and it would easy to slip into slumber right then. Was this autosuggestion? He wished he really had stayed in bed.

Mai was speaking, her voice calm and soft. "Breathe in… breathe out… Relax your shoulders."

He almost laughed. He knew that if he were to follow her advice, there was no doubt he would fall asleep. But he felt his body follow respond to her anyway, shoulder's drooping, chest heaving in a deep sigh. Was this autosuggestion?

「Tonight... Something will happen... 」

His heart stuttered. In his mind's eye he saw the old school building shaking, folding in on itself. Was that going to happen? Was he going to cause it?

「The chair on the second floor of the old school building... Will move by itself... 」

Chair? Was the chair was going cause the impending collapse? Well, the real question was, how could a chair move by itself? His fingers were tingling ー had he fallen asleep on them again? No, he was in the principal's office. He wouldn't have fallen sleep here. Would he? Was... the floor shaking? Or just him?

「Tonight in the old school building... In the lab room... 」

What about the lab room?...

Sunlight suddenly invaded the soon as the curtain's swung open. Naru jerked back in his seat, pinching his eyes shut, temporarily blinded.

"Okay, it's done." Mai said, switching off the light. Naru slowly peeled his eyes open, eyeing her and then the old wooden chair set up just behind her. He didn't remember seeing it before. Mai bowed, "Thank you all for coming."

He felt as if he were watching her through a screen, there yet not entirely present. Almost... out of body. Then he blinked, and it was over. Naru sucked down a deep breath and rubbed his eyes with his palms. Maybe he really had fallen asleep.

When he looked back up, squinting and bleary eyed, Mai had already gathered up the light and some papers and was chatting with Hara-san as they headed out the door.

"Ah, Mai-chan," Naru said, jumping out of his seat to follow them. The others had already begun to file out as well, only John staying behind to help the principal rearrange the chairs. He'd been in such a hurry to avoid another lecture that he nearly ran into Hara-san in the archway. "Oh, I'm sorry, Hara-san."

The medium lifted her sleeve to cover her mouth, avoiding his eyes. He couldn't see most of her cheeks but he thought he saw a tinge of pink as she nodded, "No, that's quite alright."

"Naru-chan," Mai chastised lightly, "shouldn't you be going back to class?"

"Well…" he let his voice trail off into a non-answer, and then started again, "Are you going back? To the school house?" He felt the unexplainable need to go there, to make sure it was still standing. He could have seen it from the window in his classroom, but he needed to be there. It was silly really. He knew it couldn't have collapsed with his knowing, he just… he couldn't explain it.

"Yes," she said, fumbling with the cord, "Actually, would you mind accompanying me and Masa-chan? I was going to ask you earlier, but I figured you wouldn't want to miss any more classesー"

"Oh, yes," he replied, caught between sarcasm and genuine opinion. He searched his brain for any sense of time. Just how long had he been in there? What class was he supposed to be returning to? He shrugged, "There is that chapter quiz in World Literature, today. I would hate to miss that."

"Surely," Mai grinned. She gestured down the hall, "Lets go."

"Where are you lot going?" Matsuzaki said snidely, arms crossed. Takigawa looked a little less skeptical beside her. They were standing so close it looked like they had been in the beginnings of an argument.

Mai waved her hand over her shoulder, "To the old school house. Come if you want but there's really no need."

"You're going back to that dangerous place?" Takigawa asked.

Matsuzaki pursed her bright red lips, "This is not the time to be playing games, children."

Naru glared over his shoulder. If anyone here is a child, Naru thought bitterly, it is you. Mai made no effort to respond. With every step they took in silence, Naru saw the Miko's calm composure dissolving. Everything about her expensive clothing and over made-up face screamed status until her pretty face crumpled into a sneer and it just screamed irritation. She flung her red hair over her shoulder, shouting, "Well, don't expect us to come to your rescue!"

.

.

"Naru-chan~" Mai said in sing-song. Without waiting, she shoved a tripod and camera into his open arms. "Set this up in the lab, please."

"What?" Naru only barely kept from dropping either of the expensive items, balancing the extended leg of the tripod on the toe of his toe. "Why? I thought we were done."

"Oh, I'm absolutely positive this place isn't haunted by ghost of the war or otherwise." She said, choosing a long roll of wires from the back of the van and offering it to Hara-san, who blatantly refused to take it.

"I am merely here as a precaution, Taniyama-san. Please, refrain from treating me as a lowly assistant."

Naru glared, obviously said lowly assistant. Mai hung the spool of wires on the upper nub of the tripod. He sighed heavily, instantly regretting it as the camera shifted in his grip. "Then why am I doing this?"

"Because you don't want to go back to class."

"Mai—" he warned.

She giggled but it was Hara-san who said, "Taniyama-san is a researcher, not a ghost hunter. Just because there are no spirits here doesn't mean there isn't something else causing the activity."

Hara-san's cheeks were tingeing red despite her attempt to hide behind her kimono sleeve.

"That's very insightful of you, Hara-san," Naru huffed, a little out of breath. The longer he held these things the sorer his shoulders were becoming until he could feel the muscle starting to burn. Not to mention he was sure he hadn't spent so much time outside since he was little. His neck felt as it were already burned in the space between his hair and his shirt collar. He asked, "Where should I put this?"

"The east lab."

The… lab… He flexed his toes; the pressure from the tripod was making them go numb. Mai looked to be contemplating something as she reached into the van, probably for more supplies. Naru back peddled, sure that if he were forced to carry anything more he would keel over.

He headed into the old building, paying special mind to the glass still scattered over the floor. The 'lab' as Mai called it, was little more than a few long desks, a chalk board, and a dusty periodic table still pinned to the far wall. What was so important that they needed to break out the equipment?

Sighing, Naru set the camera on a desk, dropped the wire spool and unfolded the tripod. By the time Mai and Hara-san arrived, he had mounted the heavy camera and set it to point to the center of the room.

"Good instincts, Naru-chan," Mai said, wielding only a small, portable, silver camcorder — or what resembled one. "Are you sure you haven't done this before?"

Leaning triumphantly against the chalkboard, he said, "It's not exactly rocket science."

Hara-san gave a light, girlish giggle, "My sentiments exactly."

"Well, if you are quite finished," Mai grumbled, pulling an old chair into the center of the room. After adjusting it to face away from the camera, she gestured to him, "Pass me some chalk."

He turned, dubious, "Do you really think there's still chalk—" there was. He picked up the small stick of white and rolled it between his fingers. The chances of it being there were beyond mere 'good luck' and bordered on 'set up'. He eyed Mai suspiciously, "Did you put that there?"

She rolled her eyes, hand outstretched, waiting, "Oh, yes. I knew you would stand in that exact spot so I planted the chalk stick just to creep you out. Now hand it over."

He tossed it to her, "Then how did you know?"

"I'm psychic."

"Mai."

"I just did!" she said, drawing a thick circle around the perimeter of the chair. "We're in a classroom. There's a chalkboard. I figured there must be chalk somewhere."

Naru crossed his arms. If she really hadn't set it up, then… he shook his head. "Whatever."

Having finished the circle, Mai set the chalk aside and dusted her hands off on her skirt. "Okay, are the windows locked?"

"I didn't check." He walked to the nearest window and pulled, but the glass didn't budge. It looked as if the wooden frame had warped from underuse and moister. "And I don't think they're going to open short of an earthquake."

She nodded, setting the small silver device on the sill next to him. "Good."

"What's that?"

She flipped the ON switch and aimed it at the chair. "It's a radar. Like the ones on airplanes."

"Oh," he nodded, folding his fist under his chin, "What is it for?" he gestured to the chair and the circle, "What is all of this for?"

"If I told you now it would render the results meaningless."

"Result…?" Of the autosuggestion? So the light; that was what that was?

"I can't say."

"But—"

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

He wanted to argue that he had already waited a day for the answers he still hadn't gotten, but Mai was already forcing him out the door. "C'mon, we still have one more thing to do."

Naru sighed, heavily, leaning against the door frame, which, incidentally, had no door. "What's that?"

Mai hardly let him finish before brandishing a long wooden plank, hammer, and nails. "Hang these across the door frame, please~"

He stared, eyebrow cocked, "Is there really going to be an earthquake? I didn't know they could predict those."

Hara-san giggled, but Mai didn't back down. He could see now that there were more boards waiting on the floor in the hallway. It was going to be a long day.

"Why do I have to do everything?" He complained, but took the board and set it up to bridge the gap over the door frame.

"I'm paying you, aren't I?"

He swung and missed the first nail altogether. He seethed, "No."

"Oh," Mai smiled brightly, "well, then, because I don't want to."

It took several long minutes and some loud swears when he clipped his own thumb with the hammer, but eventually he managed to get the boards into some type of barrier. At least no human was going to be getting through.

"Done," he huffed, stepping back to admire his handiwork.

Mai nodded and handed him a thick blue marker. She turned and handed one to Hara-san as well. "Please sign it."

"Why?"

"You'll see tomorrow."

Frustrated and tried but obligated to do it now that he'd already done this much, he uncapped the marker.

"Make sure to write big."

"Right, right."

He signed his name in wide, broad stroked, taking up the majority of two boards to do it. Hara-san signed underneath his, her signature smaller, smooth and practiced. The signature of a famous person. When they were done, Mai handed Hara-san a thin white slip of paper that she smoothed over an unmarked section of wood. The slip had some kind of writing on it. It may have been Japanese, but he didn't recognize the characters.

"It's a cleansing talisman," Hara-san explain, her eyes closed. She looked as if she were praying.

Naru nodded, "Well, what now?"

Mai collected the markers and the hammer from the ground. She shrugged her shoulders, "Now you go back to class."

"But—" He started but stopped himself. He didn't like the idea of suffering though the better half of chemistry or whatever class he was supposed to be in, but he wasn't in the mood to argue. "Okay, fine." He glanced back at his and Hara-san's signatures, at the talisman beneath them. What was all that for? He shook his head and started for the door. It didn't matter now, he would find out tomorrow.

.

.

If he thought he hadn't slept the night before, Naru was positively exhausted when he arrived at school the next morning. He was late, but not on purpose. All night he'd laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering if Gene was going to call, if Mai had some sort of supernatural power she wasn't telling him about, if the school building really was going to collapse, or if Gene was going to call.

Unfortunately, if Mai was a psychic, it wasn't like she had to tell him, and she probably wouldn't. Tomorrow, the case would be solved and Mai would leave anyway. It didn't matter. Even more unfortunately, Gene did not call.

Eventually Naru had thought the apartment too quiet to stand any longer, so he had decided to shower. As he lazily massaged shampoo into his hair, hot water pounding at his shoulders, he thought of calling Gene himself. But that would be admitting defeat and that train of thought was dismissed at once. He leaned back into the stream of water and let it wash the shampoo out. With his eyes closed, it was easy to imagine he had gone to England with his brother. That he wasn't alone in their meager apartment, but at the Davis manor Gene raved about; with lush, home cooked meals and showers where you didn't have to worry about waking the neighbors. Naru leaned his head against the cold tiled wall, imagining Gene would be sound asleep in their bed when he could convince himself to get out.

And then he had promptly fallen asleep.

Having neglected to glance at the clock or set an alarm, he had no idea how long he was asleep, only that when he woke his shoulders were aching where he'd leaned against the wall and the water was ice cold.

By the time he pulled on a uniform, caught the train, and jogged through the school gates, it was well into first period. He came to a stop just outside the door, bending at the waist to catch his breath. Damn, how long had it been since he ran that far?

"Naru-chan~"

He turned. On the edge of the school park long lot he could see the BSPR van and Mai standing on the back of it, waving her arms. His first thought was that she might fall, his second was that she really was short.

It wasn't just Mai. Hara-san and the others were crowded around the unassuming van all in different stages of irritation; from mild frowns to full blown scowls. Except for Lin-san, who he was beginning to think didn't have the capacity for it due to over Mai exposure.

Naru trudge over, backpack heavy on his shoulder. "Uh… Good morning?"

Mai beamed at him, the only one seemingly impervious to the tension of her cohorts (again, except for Lin. What was up with that guy anyway?). "Overslept?"

"...you could say that."

Matsuzaki rolled her eyes, lips curled in contempt, "Okay, everyone's here. Can we get this show on the road?"

"Patience," Hara-san voiced from behind her kimono sleeve. He knew from the show that she always wore a flower-printed kimono, that it was part of her look, but Naru couldn't help but wonder if she ever got hot in all that cloth, "is a virtue, Matsuzaki-san."

"Don't give me that." She snapped back, "We've been standing around for over an hour already. My feet hurt."

"No one told you to wear heels, Ayako-chan."

Matsuzaki's face flashed crimson. She waved her fists at him, "Don't call me by my first name, Monk!"

"Please, complain a little quieter." Kuroda pinched the bridge of her nose above her glasses. Evidently, she had decided to skip class. "Your voice is annoying."

"You're one to talk."

Mai jumped from the van seemingly not bothered by the impending argument and rallied the group with a swoosh of her hand. "Okay, let's head inside."

"Inside?" Takigawa asked, eyeing the building, "Isn't it dangerous inside?"

"You don't have to go if you're scared, Bou-san," Mai chirped, somehow choosing the exact words that would ensure the monk would follow her inside.

He grumbled, "I'm not scared."

When they reached the end of the hall where the lab was it was immediately evident that no one had broken into the room. The boards were still up and proudly sporting their blue marker signatures.

Mai said, "Naru-chan, Masa-chan, are your signatures still intact? Is that your handwriting?"

Gene had always made fun of the fact that no one but Naru could read Naru's handwriting. It was cramped and spidery, long thin lines squished so tightly together that it was intelligible. Now, seeing his signature beside Hara-san's clear and calligraphic one, he couldn't exactly disagree.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Yes," Hara-san echoed.

"I don't get it," Kuroda said, scrutinizing the boards. "What are these for?"

Matsuzaki leaned in closer, studying the talisman. Naru wondered if she could even read it. "It's just a seal. Did you seal the spirit inside?"

"You'll see." Mai said, "Naru-chan, tear down the boards please."

He should have seen that coming. Too tired to complain, Naru took a crowbar from the tall and silent Lin-san and hooked it over the first board. After watching him struggle, Takigawa and John took the crowbar and helped tear down the rest of the boards.

When the doorway was clear, they all looked in with curiosity. The chalk circle was still in the middle of the floor but the chair... Mai had put the chain in the center of the circle, right? In fact, he was sure she had drawn the circle around the chair. So, why was it empty?

Naru glanced further into the room and found the chair beside the nearest window, laying on its side. "It… moved?" No, it hadn't just moved. It had fallen over.

"Yes, indeed it did, Naru-chan."

"Wait a minute," Matsuzaki interjected. She was eyeing the circle dubiously, "I still don't understand."

Instead of answering, Mai pushed past John and Takigawa, heading toward the small radar camera. She picked it up and fiddled with the buttons on the display, a satisfied smile pulling at her lips. "Exactly what I thought."

"Land subsidence?" Takigawa heckled.

Naru stared back at the chair. Could land subsidence cause the chair to move that drastically? A few inches yes, but across the room? He didn't believe it.

But then, Mai nodded, "Land subsidence explains why half the building has already collapsed," she said, her eyes sparkled with understanding. "None of you can refute that."

"Well then," Matsuzaki jeered, "what caused all the knocking? And the footsteps? You can't say that was from land subsidence."

"No," Mai agreed, "that was the poltergeist."

Takigawa was dumbfounded. "What?"

"Listen you!" Matsuzaki wagged a finger at Mai, "First you're convinced that it's land subsidence or whatever, then you change your mind and now you're sure it's a poltergeist? Just admit you don't know what you're doing. Pack up your fancy equipment and let the professionals handle it."

Naru held back a tired snicker, hoping she wasn't referring to herself as the so-called professional.

"Would you like to see the video?" Mai offered the video camera's small screen. On the screen, the chair was still in the middle of the room.

Matsuzaki watched intently as Mai pressed the play button. Everyone gathered around, peeking over their shoulder to be able to see as the chair on screen began to shake. A sinking feeling filled Naru's gut as he watched the chair tremble as if there was an earthquake where the epicenter was that chalk circle, but nothing else is the room was affected. Then, suddenly, the chair slid violently across the floor, smashed into the wall so hard there was an audible crunching sound, and fell onto its side.

Naru took back his earlier words. The chair hadn't simply moved. It flew.

Mai rewound the film and they all watched the chair right itself and flit back to its starting position.

Takigawa was the first to react. He huffed dramatically, waving his hands toward the fallen chair, "That was most definitely a poltergeist! We need to exorcise it before it hurts someone."

Naru refrained from mentioning that it already had hurt someone (ahem). "I don't… I thought you said there were no spirits here?"

"Yes," Mai said, "I did say that and I still believe it. An exorcism will not necessary." She shut the recorders screen and meandered over the fallen chair. From the doorway, Naru could see that one of the legs was sticking out at an odd angle. "The poltergeist you are referring to is not a ghost."

Matsuzaki folded her arms, "You don't know what you're talking about."

Hara-san leveled the Miko with a candid glare. "Are you even psychic?" she asked.

"Most poltergeist activity is caused by human beings, not ghosts." Mai cut in, "Specifically, teenaged girls from about thirteen to fifteen years old. Psychokinesis can manifest in people with attention-maintained behaviors or in periods of undue stress, among other things."

Naru cocked an eyebrow, "Psychokinesis?" The term sounded familiar, something Gene might have said at one time or another.

"It's a type of psychic energy," Takigawa explained quietly. He had one arm crossed over his chest and the other supporting his chin as if he were in deep thought, "It's different from seeing spirits or fortune telling. A person with PK can influence an object or person by pure mental effort alone."

"Oh..." He had heard that term before.

Mai nodded, "Exactly. And so, if we go by that criterion — teenagers under stress — that leaves two possibilities. Kuroda-san and… Naru-chan."

"M-me?" Kuroda-san shuffled backward, hands clutched over her chest, "That – That's ridiculous!"

Naru didn't even think before he said, "Are you calling me a teenaged girl?"

"I said they're most likely to be girls," Mai giggled, "Not that they all are, Naru-chan."

"Following the criteria..." John asked, cheeks reddening, "doesn't that include you too, Mai-chan?"

"An adolescent teen with a need for attention?" Matsuzaki smiled broadly as if teasing Mai was the highlight of her day, "That does sound like you, Taniyama-san."

Mai nodded, unoffended and unconcerned. She picked at the dirt beneath her fingernail, "Normally, yes. But knowing that I wasn't even in Japan when the activity reportedly started, I think we safely rule that out."

"How can you be so sure," John-kun asked, blue eyes bright, "that it was a poltergeist and not land subsidence that caused the chair to move, Mai-chan?"

"Oh, that's easy," Mai said, "Last night, I gave you all an autosuggestion."

Everyone blanched. There was a full moment of silence before Takigawa-san recovered enough to ask, "A what?"

"Autosuggestion. It's like hypnotism. Last night I gave everyone an autosuggestion that the chair in the east lab would move." Mai gestured to the broken chair as if it spoke for itself. "Then we set up our equipment and boarded up the door so no one could enter. If the chair was going to be moved, it would only be moved by PK."

Naru remembered the blinking light, the overwhelming feeling of sleepiness. He remembered feeling the rumble of the collapsing school house beneath his feet. Had the autosuggestion made him feel that?

Matsuzaki looked unconvinced as she crossed her arms, "You're saying one of us flung that chair across the room?"

"Precisely."

Takigawa nodded, "When you say it like that..."

Mai went on, pushing at the buttons on the small camera, "It goes without saying, but objects manipulated by poltergeist are usually warm. I haven't looked, but I'm positive the thermal camera will prove that the chair rose in temperature."

"Ah…" This fact seemed to irk something inside Naru. Like there was something he should have remembered, something important. Something about a poltergeist. "Mai-chan…"

Mai eyed him, curious, "What?"

The details were coming back in nonsensical bits and pieces. His shoulders throbbed, a ghost of pain. There was something... something about… "The bookcase," he said without really knowing, "It was… warm?"

"The one that fell?" Mai wasn't that much shorter than him, but she blinked her wide cinnamon eyes up at him, waiting.

Naru felt his cheeks warm as he nodded, nursing his shoulder. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. "Yeah. It was definitely warm."

"That makes sense." Mai agreed, "It happened right after we told Kuroda-san we were positive there are no ghosts here."

"But—!" Kuroda took another half-hearted step back, her back hitting the wall of the narrow hallway. She bowed her head, "Shibuya-san was here, too! It wasn't me, it can't be!"

"Me?" Naru felt the hairs on his nape prickle defensively. He glared, "You were the one who was spreading rumors about the old-school house in the first place."

"That's not true!"

"It is." he continued, "No one else cared about it until you made up the stories about it being a hospital during the war. You pretended to see ghosts of soldiers where there were none, admit it, Kuroda-san. You lied."

He wanted to go on, but he forced himself to stop when tears began to run down the girls' pale face. She trembled under his cold gaze, sniffling, "I… I didn't… mean to…"

"It's okay, Kuroda-san. We understand why," John said, patting her shoulder reassuringly, "Even if it was a bit of a hassle."

Matsuzaki eyed Kuroda triumphantly before turning a contemplative gaze to Naru. "How can we be sure it actually was Kuroda-san? Not that I'm contesting it."

Mai handed the camera to Lin-san who still hadn't said a word the whole time, "If you think about it, Kuroda-san is the more likely candidate. I mean, Naru-chan is, no doubt, under a surmountable amount of stress, but something tells me he's never struggled for attention. Not like Kuroda-san has."

Naru blinked sardonically, but before he could ask Mai what she meant by that Takigawa asked, "Well, what do we do now? We have to tell the principal, we can't just leave like this."

Mai nibbled on the side of her finger thoughtfully, "That's true,"

Naru, who had been still been fixed on Mai's comment, looked abashed. If they told the principal that Kuroda had been the source of all their problems, that wouldn't go well for Kuroda. Best case scenario, she would be teased by the whole student body and they would just end up in a worse situation. However, if they couldn't exactly tell principal Sato that there had been nothing there in the first place… "Why don't we just tell the principal that we exorcised the ghosts here and that it is safe to continue with the demolition. That would be easiest."

"You want to lie to your principal, Naru-chan?"

"I don't condone lying, but any other explanation will fall back on Kuroda-san," he explained, "and she's already under a lot of pressure. That's how this all started in the first place."

At first, a hush settled over the room. Naru had folded his arms across his chest, again feeling heat start to pool in his cheeks when Mai broke the silence, nodding. "Wow, so you really are a good guy, Naru-chan. I agree with you. We will tell the principal that we all share responsibility in exorcising the ghosts residing here."

"Sounds good to me," Takigawa said, John nodded in agreement.

Matsuzaki had a sparkle in her eye that gave Naru the shivers. He turned away from her, rigid as he grimaced, "Please don't hit on me again."

He didn't have to turn around to know that she probably wanted to pummel him, "Why you—!"

"Thank you, Shibuya-san." Kuroda folded in on herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. Tears still glistened in the corners of her eyes as she refused to look up from the floorboards.

He felt bad, sure, but Kuroda had brought this upon herself. Still, his gaze softened. "Don't mention it. I'm just trying to prevent any future poltergeist incidents."

.

.

It happened only a few days later. Naru was gazing out the window, not-so-patiently waiting for class to begin, when the old-school house gave a great last shudder. It was so startlingly similar to the dream he had that it took him a moment to remember he wasn't sleeping. The other students raced to look out the window and witness the collapse; the demise of the old rumors. Naru turned away. That old building had served as the last reminder of his time with Mai and SPR and he felt a strange emotion tugging in his chest. He couldn't deny it was over now.

"Good morning class," the English teacher said loudly, over the sound of the rumble. No one had heard the sliding door open, but now they rushed to their assigned seats, mumbling apologies and good morning's. "Since entrance exams are right around the corner, I thought a practice test was in order. The results will give you an idea of what you should be studying. Please clear your desks."

Naru sighed, pulling a pen from the side pocket of his bag. He hated everything about school, from the useless textbooks to the hours wasted by lectures and studying. He especially hated homework (really, school was the last thing he wanted to think about while he was at home), but tests held a special cranny in his heart. It was less of a test of knowledge and more of a torture device. Which was why he glared at the paper as soon as it slid across his desk but penned his name at the top most line anyway.

It was a necessary evil.

The sheet was completely in English, but it wasn't difficult to decipher, especially after he spent the better part of his childhood learning it. Naru leaned again on his palm and scratched the answers in his spidery scrawl. It only took a few minutes to complete with full confidence. He twirled the pen around his thumb and gazed out the window. He was so tired and school just started.

"Shibuya-san?"

Naru nearly gave himself whiplash. His pen hopped his fingers and rolled off the edge of his desk as he searched for the voice. His English teacher smiled at him from her desk. She gestured to his paper, "Are you finished with your test?"

"Uh, yes, Sensei."

"Please, bring it here," she prompted.

Naru slipped his pen back into the side pocket of his knapsack and slung it over his shoulder. Trying to ignore the confused and envious stares of the other students, he handed the single sheet to the teacher.

She smiled, "There is someone waiting for you in the front lobby."

In the lobby? Naru adjusted his backpack and quietly ducked out the classroom door. The front lobby was only a floor below, but he walked faster than he would have otherwise. Who would come to the school to see him? Gene wasn't due back until the end of the month ー God, he hoped it wasn't Chiyoko, asking him to fill in for Gene again. He didn't know how much rejection that woman could take before she realized Naru just wasn't the serving type.

But it wasn't Chiyoko. It was Mai, clad in her usual black and white ensemble. She sat patiently in one of the offices plastic chairs, legs crossed, expectant.

Noll reined in his surprised, quickly putting his gaping mouth to use as he said, indignant, "Did you come here to thank me?"

Mai was unabashed. She jumped to her feet wide-eyed and furrow browed as if she had forgotten why she'd been here in the first place. He somehow didn't doubt that. "Hello, Naru-chan. It's nice to see you again."

"Sure."

"Yep," Mai laughed, "Still as cool as ever. Actually, I came here to ask you something."

Naru hitched an eyebrow, smoothing the nonexistent wrinkles front of his button up. "Is that all? You could have called."

"You're right, I could have." She agreed, "but then I would have missed the expression on your face when I offered you a job at JSPR."

"...A... job?" Naru wasn't sure what his face looked like, but it felt taut, frozen in some sort of shock. Or horror. He tried to press his lips together, to hide the imminent smirk. "At... JSPR?"

"Just what I thought. Priceless."

"Are you being serious?"

"Of course I am." Mai hmphed in faux irritation, "Well?"

Well what? One large part of him was already day-dreaming about what it would be like to work at JSPR, to work with Mai. What would they do? Would all the cases be as infuriatingly complex as this one? Would he always be subjected to the sidelines, a manual laborer, resident handyman, or would he be an investigator like she was? If he was working than Gene could take more time off. Wasn't it about time he help out with bills and such? But then again, the only reason Gene was working so hard in the first place…

"We can't afford to send both of us to university, and I've missed way too much school anyway. You deserve a better future than this."

What would Gene say when he realized just how many days Naru had already skipped because of JSPR? Even if it had been excused…

Biting his lips, Nau finally shook his head, "Thanks for the offer... but I... don't think this school allows such a thing." He lied. And Gene would kill me, he added to himself.

"I already checked with Sato-sensei." Mai explained, undeterred, "He seems to think it would be good for you to have a job."

"UhーYeah," Naru seethed, taken aback. Gene's opinion was one thing, but Sato-san could shove it you-know-where. "He would, wouldn't he."

"So? How about it?"

"I..." he shifted his weight, adjusting the strap sliding off his shoulder. It couldn't be that bad, right? He could finally help with the bills, and he wouldn't let it interfere with his studies.

Plus… Gene would forgive him, right?

"Sure, yeah. I'll work for you." He thought about it for another second then waved a hand defensively, pushing away his uncertainty. "But I will not be your secretary."

"Oh, please." Mai giggled, "But I'm glad. It'll be good to have another person around. He may not look it, but Lin-san is so not the talkative type."

Naru nodded, thinking the Chinese man looked exactly like the tall-and-silent type. "Well, I should get back to class."

"Oh, yeah! I'm sorry if I interrupted anything important."

He thought of the test and how bored he would have been sitting there. "No, it's fine."

"Oh, good. So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"It would help if you told me the address."

"Oh! It's in Shibuya, just off the main road ー ah; actually, we'll just pick you up here."

"Why?"

"Because it's kind of difficult to find if you've never been there."

Naru looked skeptical, "Isn't that bad for business?"

"Not really. Those who need us have no problem finding us. Actually, our next caseー"

"You already have a new case? It's only been a couple days."

"Yeah but, truth be told, I declined their case the first time. You're principal over exaggerated the severity of the case. Though I do suppose someone could have gotten hurt when it collapsed." Mai shook her head, "Anyway, we will be here to pick you up after school tomorrow."

"Sure, see you later Mai-buchou."

.

.

Meanwhile, somewhere on another continent...

Gene slid his cell phone from hand to hand across the wood of the kitchen table. He stared openly at it, chin resting at eye level on the edge of said table. He knew it was bad manners and that he should stop and eat the lunch Luella had so graciously made him, but he just couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The uneasy feeling probably stemmed from the fact that the last time he talked to his brother was in that dreamlike-place days ago, and it hadn't even really been a real conversation. Noll had been injured and called out to him without even realizing and he'd woken up a few minutes later anyway.

Their connection, he was beginning to realize, was amazing and utterly confounding. Able to cross continents and oceans without as much as a hiccup, yet downright unpredictable. He wondered if he knocked if Noll would answer. He probably wouldn't but only because Noll was the type who enjoyed his privacy, especially in his thoughts. He hadn't told the Davises about their bond yet, he didn't feel the need to. His brother was already fickle about his joining BSPR and trying to drag him into it, which would be inevitable if they knew, was just a bad idea all around.

It was Noll's fault for refusing to come with him. Still...

Gene sighed, flicking the phone in a circle. He should have called but Noll was bound to be in class by now.

"Daijoubu?" Luella asked, pushing another thrilled cheese sandwich around the skillet.

He sat up straight and smiled. It wasn't difficult to smile around the Davises, they were good people; Luella especially. She was beautiful with her long blonde curls and bright violet eyes. Gene may have been well practiced in English due to his upbringing, but Luella Davis had made the effort to learn Japanese. For him. Every now and again they would have short conversations and he would correct her grammar, but at least she was trying.

"I'm alright, thank you." he said in English, picking up his phone to glance at the glowing clock face. School had most definitely started. "Just worried about Noll. He's not very good at being alone."

Luella gave an understanding nod, layering another slice of cheese onto the sizzling bread. "This is the first time you boys have been separated, right? It's only natural to feel that way."

Sometimes he forgot Luella was also a psychologist.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, the trials are almost over. You'll be back home in just a few days. Try not to worry about it too much."

He hummed his agreement and nibbled on his long-cold sandwich. It was sweet and cheesy; delicious. He was going to miss these.

"Oh," Luella laughed, suddenly remembering, "Did you tell your brother you are coming home early?"

"No," Gene beamed at his half-eaten sandwich. He had tried to tell him, but Noll had been semiconscious at best and recently injured. He doubted he remembered if he heard it at all. "I think I'll surprise him."

A/N: A humongous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for without whom I would still be grimacing every time I reread this chapter. Thank you for all you do, not to mention your great advice and saint-like patience!

Read, relax, and review!

ELV


	7. Sunnier Forecast

Buchou = captain, or boss.

"Dialogue in English."

"Normal dialogue."

"Dialogue with written Japanese."

Chapter 6  
Sunny Forecast  
part 2

If he thought he hadn't slept the night before, Naru was positively exhausted when he arrived at school the next morning. He was late, but not on purpose. All night he'd laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering if Gene was going to call, if Mai had some sort of supernatural power she wasn't telling him about, if the school building really was going to collapse, or if Gene was going to call.

Unfortunately, if Mai was a psychic, it wasn't like she had to tell him, and she probably wouldn't. Tomorrow, the case would be solved and Mai would leave anyway. It didn't matter. Even more unfortunately, Gene did not call.

Eventually Naru had thought the apartment too quiet to stand any longer, so he had decided to shower. As he lazily massaged shampoo into his hair, hot water pounding at his shoulders, he thought of calling Gene himself. But that would be admitting defeat and that train of thought was dismissed at once. He leaned back into the stream of water and let it wash the shampoo out. With his eyes closed, it was easy to imagine he had gone to England with his brother. That he wasn't alone in their meager apartment, but at the Davis manor Gene raved about; with lush, home cooked meals and showers where you didn't have to worry about waking the neighbors. Naru leaned his head against the cold tiled wall, imagining Gene would be sound asleep in their bed when he could convince himself to get out.

And then he had promptly fallen asleep.

Having neglected to glance at the clock or set an alarm, he had no idea how long he was asleep, only that when he woke his shoulders were aching where he'd leaned against the wall and the water was ice cold.

By the time he pulled on a uniform, caught the train, and jogged through the school gates, it was well into first period. He came to a stop just outside the door, bending at the waist to catch his breath. Damn, how long had it been since he ran that far?

"Naru-chan~"

He turned. On the edge of the school park long lot he could see the BSPR van and Mai standing on the back of it, waving her arms. His first thought was that she might fall, his second was that she really was short.

It wasn't just Mai. Hara-san and the others were crowded around the unassuming van all in different stages of irritation; from mild frowns to full blown scowls. Except for Lin-san, who he was beginning to think didn't have the capacity for it due to over Mai exposure.

Naru trudge over, backpack heavy on his shoulder. "Uh… Good morning?"

Mai beamed at him, the only one seemingly impervious to the tension of her cohorts (again, except for Lin. What was up with that guy anyway?). "Overslept?"

"...you could say that."

Matsuzaki rolled her eyes, lips curled in contempt, "Okay, everyone's here. Can we get this show on the road?"

"Patience," Hara-san voiced from behind her kimono sleeve. He knew from the show that she always wore a flower-printed kimono, that it was part of her look, but Naru couldn't help but wonder if she ever got hot in all that cloth, "is a virtue, Matsuzaki-san."

"Don't give me that." She snapped back, "We've been standing around for over an hour already. My feet hurt."

"No one told you to wear heels, Ayako-chan."

Matsuzaki's face flashed crimson. She waved her fists at him, "Don't call me by my first name, Monk!"

"Please, complain a little quieter." Kuroda pinched the bridge of her nose above her glasses. Evidently, she had decided to skip class. "Your voice is annoying."

"You're one to talk."

Mai jumped from the van seemingly not bothered by the impending argument and rallied the group with a swoosh of her hand. "Okay, let's head inside."

"Inside?" Takigawa asked, eyeing the building, "Isn't it dangerous inside?"

"You don't have to go if you're scared, Bou-san," Mai chirped, somehow choosing the exact words that would ensure the monk would follow her inside.

He grumbled, "I'm not scared."

When they reached the end of the hall where the lab was it was immediately evident that no one had broken into the room. The boards were still up and proudly sporting their blue marker signatures.

Mai said, "Naru-chan, Masa-chan, are your signatures still intact? Is that your handwriting?"

Gene had always made fun of the fact that no one but Naru could read Naru's handwriting. It was cramped and spidery, long thin lines squished so tightly together that it was intelligible. Now, seeing his signature beside Hara-san's clear and calligraphic one, he couldn't exactly disagree.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Yes," Hara-san echoed.

"I don't get it," Kuroda said, scrutinizing the boards. "What are these for?"

Matsuzaki leaned in closer, studying the talisman. Naru wondered if she could even read it. "It's just a seal. Did you seal the spirit inside?"

"You'll see." Mai said, "Naru-chan, tear down the boards please."

He should have seen that coming. Too tired to complain, Naru took a crowbar from the tall and silent Lin-san and hooked it over the first board. After watching him struggle, Takigawa and John took the crowbar and helped tear down the rest of the boards.

When the doorway was clear, they all looked in with curiosity. The chalk circle was still in the middle of the floor but the chair... Mai had put the chain in the center of the circle, right? In fact, he was sure she had drawn the circle around the chair. So, why was it empty?

Naru glanced further into the room and found the chair beside the nearest window, laying on its side. "It… moved?" No, it hadn't just moved. It had fallen over.

"Yes, indeed it did, Naru-chan."

"Wait a minute," Matsuzaki interjected. She was eyeing the circle dubiously, "I still don't understand."

Instead of answering, Mai pushed past John and Takigawa, heading toward the small radar camera. She picked it up and fiddled with the buttons on the display, a satisfied smile pulling at her lips. "Exactly what I thought."

"Land subsidence?" Takigawa heckled.

Naru stared back at the chair. Could land subsidence cause the chair to move that drastically? A few inches yes, but across the room? He didn't believe it.

But then, Mai nodded, "Land subsidence explains why half the building has already collapsed," she said, her eyes sparkled with understanding. "None of you can refute that."

"Well then," Matsuzaki jeered, "what caused all the knocking? And the footsteps? You can't say that was from land subsidence."

"No," Mai agreed, "that was the poltergeist."

Takigawa was dumbfounded. "What?"

"Listen you!" Matsuzaki wagged a finger at Mai, "First you're convinced that it's land subsidence or whatever, then you change your mind and now you're sure it's a poltergeist? Just admit you don't know what you're doing. Pack up your fancy equipment and let the professionals handle it."

Naru held back a tired snicker, hoping she wasn't referring to herself as the so-called professional.

"Would you like to see the video?" Mai offered the video camera's small screen. On the screen, the chair was still in the middle of the room.

Matsuzaki watched intently as Mai pressed the play button. Everyone gathered around, peeking over their shoulder to be able to see as the chair on screen began to shake. A sinking feeling filled Naru's gut as he watched the chair tremble as if there was an earthquake where the epicenter was that chalk circle, but nothing else is the room was affected. Then, suddenly, the chair slid violently across the floor, smashed into the wall so hard there was an audible crunching sound, and fell onto its side.

Naru took back his earlier words. The chair hadn't simply moved. It flew.

Mai rewound the film and they all watched the chair right itself and flit back to its starting position.

Takigawa was the first to react. He huffed dramatically, waving his hands toward the fallen chair, "That was most definitely a poltergeist! We need to exorcise it before it hurts someone."

Naru refrained from mentioning that it already had hurt someone (ahem). "I don't… I thought you said there were no spirits here?"

"Yes," Mai said, "I did say that and I still believe it. An exorcism will not necessary." She shut the recorders screen and meandered over the fallen chair. From the doorway, Naru could see that one of the legs was sticking out at an odd angle. "The poltergeist you are referring to is not a ghost."

Matsuzaki folded her arms, "You don't know what you're talking about."

Hara-san leveled the Miko with a candid glare. "Are you even psychic?" she asked.

"Most poltergeist activity is caused by human beings, not ghosts." Mai cut in, "Specifically, teenaged girls from about thirteen to fifteen years old. Psychokinesis can manifest in people with attention-maintained behaviors or in periods of undue stress, among other things."

Naru cocked an eyebrow, "Psychokinesis?" The term sounded familiar, something Gene might have said at one time or another.

"It's a type of psychic energy," Takigawa explained quietly. He had one arm crossed over his chest and the other supporting his chin as if he were in deep thought, "It's different from seeing spirits or fortune telling. A person with PK can influence an object or person by pure mental effort alone."

"Oh..." He had heard that term before.

Mai nodded, "Exactly. And so, if we go by that criterion — teenagers under stress — that leaves two possibilities. Kuroda-san and… Naru-chan."

"M-me?" Kuroda-san shuffled backward, hands clutched over her chest, "That – That's ridiculous!"

Naru didn't even think before he said, "Are you calling me a teenaged girl?"

"I said they're most likely to be girls," Mai giggled, "Not that they all are, Naru-chan."

"Following the criteria..." John asked, cheeks reddening, "doesn't that include you too, Mai-chan?"

"An adolescent teen with a need for attention?" Matsuzaki smiled broadly as if teasing Mai was the highlight of her day, "That does sound like you, Taniyama-san."

Mai nodded, unoffended and unconcerned. She picked at the dirt beneath her fingernail, "Normally, yes. But knowing that I wasn't even in Japan when the activity reportedly started, I think we safely rule that out."

"How can you be so sure," John-kun asked, blue eyes bright, "that it was a poltergeist and not land subsidence that caused the chair to move, Mai-chan?"

"Oh, that's easy," Mai said, "Last night, I gave you all an autosuggestion."

Everyone blanched. There was a full moment of silence before Takigawa-san recovered enough to ask, "A what?"

"Autosuggestion. It's like hypnotism. Last night I gave everyone an autosuggestion that the chair in the east lab would move." Mai gestured to the broken chair as if it spoke for itself. "Then we set up our equipment and boarded up the door so no one could enter. If the chair was going to be moved, it would only be moved by PK."

Naru remembered the blinking light, the overwhelming feeling of sleepiness. He remembered feeling the rumble of the collapsing school house beneath his feet. Had the autosuggestion made him feel that?

Matsuzaki looked unconvinced as she crossed her arms, "You're saying one of us flung that chair across the room?"

"Precisely."

Takigawa nodded, "When you say it like that..."

Mai went on, pushing at the buttons on the small camera, "It goes without saying, but objects manipulated by poltergeist are usually warm. I haven't looked, but I'm positive the thermal camera will prove that the chair rose in temperature."

"Ah…" This fact seemed to irk something inside Naru. Like there was something he should have remembered, something important. Something about a poltergeist. "Mai-chan…"

Mai eyed him, curious, "What?"

The details were coming back in nonsensical bits and pieces. His shoulders throbbed, a ghost of pain. There was something... something about… "The bookcase," he said without really knowing, "It was… warm?"

"The one that fell?" Mai wasn't that much shorter than him, but she blinked her wide cinnamon eyes up at him, waiting.

Naru felt his cheeks warm as he nodded, nursing his shoulder. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. "Yeah. It was definitely warm."

"That makes sense." Mai agreed, "It happened right after we told Kuroda-san we were positive there are no ghosts here."

"But—!" Kuroda took another half-hearted step back, her back hitting the wall of the narrow hallway. She bowed her head, "Shibuya-san was here, too! It wasn't me, it can't be!"

"Me?" Naru felt the hairs on his nape prickle defensively. He glared, "You were the one who was spreading rumors about the old-school house in the first place."

"That's not true!"

"It is." he continued, "No one else cared about it until you made up the stories about it being a hospital during the war. You pretended to see ghosts of soldiers where there were none, admit it, Kuroda-san. You lied."

He wanted to go on, but he forced himself to stop when tears began to run down the girls' pale face. She trembled under his cold gaze, sniffling, "I… I didn't… mean to…"

"It's okay, Kuroda-san. We understand why," John said, patting her shoulder reassuringly, "Even if it was a bit of a hassle."

Matsuzaki eyed Kuroda triumphantly before turning a contemplative gaze to Naru. "How can we be sure it actually was Kuroda-san? Not that I'm contesting it."

Mai handed the camera to Lin-san who still hadn't said a word the whole time, "If you think about it, Kuroda-san is the more likely candidate. I mean, Naru-chan is, no doubt, under a surmountable amount of stress, but something tells me he's never struggled for attention. Not like Kuroda-san has."

Naru blinked sardonically, but before he could ask Mai what she meant by that Takigawa asked, "Well, what do we do now? We have to tell the principal, we can't just leave like this."

Mai nibbled on the side of her finger thoughtfully, "That's true,"

Naru, who had been still been fixed on Mai's comment, looked abashed. If they told the principal that Kuroda had been the source of all their problems, that wouldn't go well for Kuroda. Best case scenario, she would be teased by the whole student body and they would just end up in a worse situation. However, if they couldn't exactly tell principal Sato that there had been nothing there in the first place… "Why don't we just tell the principal that we exorcised the ghosts here and that it is safe to continue with the demolition. That would be easiest."

"You want to lie to your principal, Naru-chan?"

"I don't condone lying, but any other explanation will fall back on Kuroda-san," he explained, "and she's already under a lot of pressure. That's how this all started in the first place."

At first, a hush settled over the room. Naru had folded his arms across his chest, again feeling heat start to pool in his cheeks when Mai broke the silence, nodding. "Wow, so you really are a good guy, Naru-chan. I agree with you. We will tell the principal that we all share responsibility in exorcising the ghosts residing here."

"Sounds good to me," Takigawa said, John nodded in agreement.

Matsuzaki had a sparkle in her eye that gave Naru the shivers. He turned away from her, rigid as he grimaced, "Please don't hit on me again."

He didn't have to turn around to know that she probably wanted to pummel him, "Why you—!"

"Thank you, Shibuya-san." Kuroda folded in on herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. Tears still glistened in the corners of her eyes as she refused to look up from the floorboards.

He felt bad, sure, but Kuroda had brought this upon herself. Still, his gaze softened. "Don't mention it. I'm just trying to prevent any future poltergeist incidents."

.

.

It happened only a few days later. Naru was gazing out the window, not-so-patiently waiting for class to begin, when the old-school house gave a great last shudder. It was so startlingly similar to the dream he had that it took him a moment to remember he wasn't sleeping. The other students raced to look out the window and witness the collapse; the demise of the old rumors. Naru turned away. That old building had served as the last reminder of his time with Mai and SPR and he felt a strange emotion tugging in his chest. He couldn't deny it was over now.

"Good morning class," the English teacher said loudly, over the sound of the rumble. No one had heard the sliding door open, but now they rushed to their assigned seats, mumbling apologies and good morning's. "Since entrance exams are right around the corner, I thought a practice test was in order. The results will give you an idea of what you should be studying. Please clear your desks."

Naru sighed, pulling a pen from the side pocket of his bag. He hated everything about school, from the useless textbooks to the hours wasted by lectures and studying. He especially hated homework (really, school was the last thing he wanted to think about while he was at home), but tests held a special cranny in his heart. It was less of a test of knowledge and more of a torture device. Which was why he glared at the paper as soon as it slid across his desk but penned his name at the top most line anyway.

It was a necessary evil.

The sheet was completely in English, but it wasn't difficult to decipher, especially after he spent the better part of his childhood learning it. Naru leaned again on his palm and scratched the answers in his spidery scrawl. It only took a few minutes to complete with full confidence. He twirled the pen around his thumb and gazed out the window. He was so tired and school just started.

"Shibuya-san?"

Naru nearly gave himself whiplash. His pen hopped his fingers and rolled off the edge of his desk as he searched for the voice. His English teacher smiled at him from her desk. She gestured to his paper, "Are you finished with your test?"

"Uh, yes, Sensei."

"Please, bring it here," she prompted.

Naru slipped his pen back into the side pocket of his knapsack and slung it over his shoulder. Trying to ignore the confused and envious stares of the other students, he handed the single sheet to the teacher.

She smiled, "There is someone waiting for you in the front lobby."

In the lobby? Naru adjusted his backpack and quietly ducked out the classroom door. The front lobby was only a floor below, but he walked faster than he would have otherwise. Who would come to the school to see him? Gene wasn't due back until the end of the month ー God, he hoped it wasn't Chiyoko, asking him to fill in for Gene again. He didn't know how much rejection that woman could take before she realized Naru just wasn't the serving type.

But it wasn't Chiyoko. It was Mai, clad in her usual black and white ensemble. She sat patiently in one of the offices plastic chairs, legs crossed, expectant.

Noll reined in his surprised, quickly putting his gaping mouth to use as he said, indignant, "Did you come here to thank me?"

Mai was unabashed. She jumped to her feet wide-eyed and furrow browed as if she had forgotten why she'd been here in the first place. He somehow didn't doubt that. "Hello, Naru-chan. It's nice to see you again."

"Sure."

"Yep," Mai laughed, "Still as cool as ever. Actually, I came here to ask you something."

Naru hitched an eyebrow, smoothing the nonexistent wrinkles front of his button up. "Is that all? You could have called."

"You're right, I could have." She agreed, "but then I would have missed the expression on your face when I offered you a job at JSPR."

"...A... job?" Naru wasn't sure what his face looked like, but it felt taut, frozen in some sort of shock. Or horror. He tried to press his lips together, to hide the imminent smirk. "At... JSPR?"

"Just what I thought. Priceless."

"Are you being serious?"

"Of course I am." Mai hmphed in faux irritation, "Well?"

Well what? One large part of him was already day-dreaming about what it would be like to work at JSPR, to work with Mai. What would they do? Would all the cases be as infuriatingly complex as this one? Would he always be subjected to the sidelines, a manual laborer, resident handyman, or would he be an investigator like she was? If he was working than Gene could take more time off. Wasn't it about time he help out with bills and such? But then again, the only reason Gene was working so hard in the first place…

"We can't afford to send both of us to university, and I've missed way too much school anyway. You deserve a better future than this."

What would Gene say when he realized just how many days Naru had already skipped because of JSPR? Even if it had been excused…

Biting his lips, Nau finally shook his head, "Thanks for the offer... but I... don't think this school allows such a thing." He lied. And Gene would kill me, he added to himself.

"I already checked with Sato-sensei." Mai explained, undeterred, "He seems to think it would be good for you to have a job."

"UhーYeah," Naru seethed, taken aback. Gene's opinion was one thing, but Sato-san could shove it you-know-where. "He would, wouldn't he."

"So? How about it?"

"I..." he shifted his weight, adjusting the strap sliding off his shoulder. It couldn't be that bad, right? He could finally help with the bills, and he wouldn't let it interfere with his studies.

Plus… Gene would forgive him, right?

"Sure, yeah. I'll work for you." He thought about it for another second then waved a hand defensively, pushing away his uncertainty. "But I will not be your secretary."

"Oh, please." Mai giggled, "But I'm glad. It'll be good to have another person around. He may not look it, but Lin-san is so not the talkative type."

Naru nodded, thinking the Chinese man looked exactly like the tall-and-silent type. "Well, I should get back to class."

"Oh, yeah! I'm sorry if I interrupted anything important."

He thought of the test and how bored he would have been sitting there. "No, it's fine."

"Oh, good. So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"It would help if you told me the address."

"Oh! It's in Shibuya, just off the main road ー ah; actually, we'll just pick you up here."

"Why?"

"Because it's kind of difficult to find if you've never been there."

Naru looked skeptical, "Isn't that bad for business?"

"Not really. Those who need us have no problem finding us. Actually, our next caseー"

"You already have a new case? It's only been a couple days."

"Yeah but, truth be told, I declined their case the first time. You're principal over exaggerated the severity of the case. Though I do suppose someone could have gotten hurt when it collapsed." Mai shook her head, "Anyway, we will be here to pick you up after school tomorrow."

"Sure, see you later Mai-buchou."

.

.

Meanwhile, somewhere on another continent...

Gene slid his cell phone from hand to hand across the wood of the kitchen table. He stared openly at it, chin resting at eye level on the edge of said table. He knew it was bad manners and that he should stop and eat the lunch Luella had so graciously made him, but he just couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The uneasy feeling probably stemmed from the fact that the last time he talked to his brother was in that dreamlike-place days ago, and it hadn't even really been a real conversation. Noll had been injured and called out to him without even realizing and he'd woken up a few minutes later anyway.

Their connection, he was beginning to realize, was amazing and utterly confounding. Able to cross continents and oceans without as much as a hiccup, yet downright unpredictable. He wondered if he knocked if Noll would answer. He probably wouldn't but only because Noll was the type who enjoyed his privacy, especially in his thoughts. He hadn't told the Davises about their bond yet, he didn't feel the need to. His brother was already fickle about his joining BSPR and trying to drag him into it, which would be inevitable if they knew, was just a bad idea all around.

It was Noll's fault for refusing to come with him. Still...

Gene sighed, flicking the phone in a circle. He should have called but Noll was bound to be in class by now.

"Daijoubu?" Luella asked, pushing another thrilled cheese sandwich around the skillet.

He sat up straight and smiled. It wasn't difficult to smile around the Davises, they were good people; Luella especially. She was beautiful with her long blonde curls and bright violet eyes. Gene may have been well practiced in English due to his upbringing, but Luella Davis had made the effort to learn Japanese. For him. Every now and again they would have short conversations and he would correct her grammar, but at least she was trying.

"I'm alright, thank you." he said in English, picking up his phone to glance at the glowing clock face. School had most definitely started. "Just worried about Noll. He's not very good at being alone."

Luella gave an understanding nod, layering another slice of cheese onto the sizzling bread. "This is the first time you boys have been separated, right? It's only natural to feel that way."

Sometimes he forgot Luella was also a psychologist.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, the trials are almost over. You'll be back home in just a few days. Try not to worry about it too much."

He hummed his agreement and nibbled on his long-cold sandwich. It was sweet and cheesy; delicious. He was going to miss these.

"Oh," Luella laughed, suddenly remembering, "Did you tell your brother you are coming home early?"

"No," Gene beamed at his half-eaten sandwich. He had tried to tell him, but Noll had been semiconscious at best and recently injured. He doubted he remembered if he heard it at all. "I think I'll surprise him."


	8. Part II: Apparition

"Dialogue in English."

"Normal dialogue."

"Dialogue with written Japanese."

Chapter 7  
Apparition

Section II: Could All Spirits Really Be Evil?

Jyuuni Ejiri-san stepped away from the kitchen counter, hammer hanging loosely in one hand and wiping the bead of sweat from his forehead with the other. The old laminate slab was in tatters ー just the way he wanted it. He halfheartedly tossed the hammer to the small toolbox by his feet, watching with a satisfied smile when it hit the side with a dull thunk.

"Tou-san!" he called, out of breath, into back into the empty apartment. It echoed back at him, "Come help me lift the counter!"

Panting, he cast his eyes around tattered kitchen, skirting over the remains of the outdated wooden cabinets dangling haphazardly from the crummy wall to the equally dated wooden floors pulled up around his feet and the exposed dried yellow glue beneath, then finally, to the splintered slab that was once the counter top. A feeling of pride swelled in his chest; it seemed the remodel was going better than expected. As soon as his father was finished with tearing down the master bathroom...

Where was his father?

As if materialized by his thoughts, the older, scruffy faced Shiin Ejiri-san rounded the corner, pausing in the archway to the kitchen. Sweat was dripping down his reddened cheeks and a thin white dust colored his jeans. He held a dodgy looking cluster of papers that he waved irritably, "Jun, have you seen my power drill?" he asked, then paused to take in the deconstructed room. "Looks good, kiddo."

Jyuuni's grin widened, "Didn't you have that drill when you were taking apart the sink a few hours ago?"

"That's what I thought, too, but now I can't find it," he huffed. Turning back toward the hall, he tossed the haphazard pile of papers into the adjacent room where they were keeping the rest of the trash, "I might've left it in the trunk when we went for lunch."

"Dad~" Jyuuni called half amused, half irritated. He spread his arms wide, incredulous, "The counterー!"

He heard the opening of the front door, "I'll be right back!"

Jyuuni let his arms fall back to his side as the apartment door squealed shut. Maybe he could do it on his own? He thought, imagining lifting the thick slab of wood and laminate. It was just a few kilos'; it shouldn't be that heavy. He pressed his thumb to his lips, cupping his chin as he thought. Maybe if he just smashed it into smaller pieces... yes, that was probably best. Then he didn't need his father's help at all.

Mind on the task at hand, Jyuuni bent low, reaching absently for the discarded hammer. His hand swiped at empty air. "Huh?" he mumbled, forcing his gaze down to the toolbox at his feet. There was a small box of nails he'd bought earlier that week, a pile of multi-headed screwdrivers, and several other knick-knacks, but no hammer. He rifled through it, just in case it slipped in on accident, but there was no sign of it.

Maybe he hadn't put it back in the box, he thought, but no. He knew he did, he'd watched it ー heard it even. "Where is it?" He breathed, a puff of white materializing. Goosebumps had spread across his skin, raising the hair on his arms. He shivered.

When did it get so cold? He glanced over his shoulder at the golden sunlight still filtering through the small window over the sink. Something was off about it, like a cloud of dust had settled right over the light. Jyuuni wrapped his arms around himself, leaning closer to the haze. Maybe his father had left the A/C unit running? God only knew how much dust the old thing had collected.

Except, the dust was moving. It swirled around in lazy circles, condensing in the middle and spreading out to the edges. Jyuuni stepped back, tripping over the corner of the tool box. A figure was forming in the swirls of dust. A figure that looked too real, too human. "What the hell!"

The figure was more than dust now. It seemed almost solid as it glided forward out of the sun's glow, mouth agape. "Tell..." Its voice was no more than a faint electrical buzzing. Jyunni scurried back again, not daring to take his eyes off the darkening figure as it came closer. "Tell... them..."

His back hit the wall.

"Tell them theー"

"Jyuuni?" his father's voice suddenly called from the hall, "Did you turn the A/C on? It's freezing in here."

He didn't think. The door was so close he slipped through it without a second thought, barreling straight into his father's thick chest. He barely breathed. "Dad!"

Shiin stared down at his son's pallid face, confusion mixing with concern as he pushed him from his chest. "What's wrong?" he asked, chuckling nervously, "you look like you've seen a ghost."

At the word ghost Jyuuni seized his father's calloused hands and forced his back toward the front door. "I did!" he whispered, afraid if he spoke too loud the figure in the kitchen would hear him, "in the kitchen!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Jun." His father said, pushing Jyunni aside and gesturing to the unobstructed view of the kitchen. It was dirty and dusty, but mercifully empty.

"Butー" Jyuuni's mind was racing too fast to form coherent words. It had been there he was sure of it. As sure as he was that his hammer had been in the tool box. "It was thereー!"

Shiin waved him off, letting out a loud bark of a laugh, "There's such thing as ghosts."

.

.

"Na-ru-chan~" Mai sang, leaning back against the plain white van parked just outside the school gates.

Naru looked up from his quiz paper long enough to take in her short, dark red plaid skirt and untucked white t-shirt. She looked like a completely different Mai than the one who had been ordering him around the last couple days, and for a fraction of a second, he doubted it was Mai at all. But her short brown hair and big, round eyes were too familiar to belong to anyone else. Nor, he thought with a flicker of annoyance, did anyone make a habit of calling him 'Naru'. "You look... different."

"Yes," she said, picking up the hem of her skirt and giving it a wave, "it's amazing what fashion you can have when you aren't confined to wearing a school uniform."

Naru, who stole a glance down at his own uniform, wasn't sure if she was making fun of his over-worn black pants which were creased around one knee where he crossed his legs. The pants didn't bother him but the green hemmed white shirt and green tie weren't exactly his style. Neither the accompanying black jacket but he still wore it but had purposely forgotten to button it. Pretending not to have heard he said, "Where are we going?"

"Shibuya," she said, turning on the spot and seizing the door handle.

He glared down at her, "-san, Mai-chan. Shibuya-san."

She looked over her shoulder, confused, "Wha..." and then a wide smile broke out across her face. "The Shibuya ward, Shibuya-san."

"Oh," He could feel his cheeks heating, coaxed by her hushed short of laughter. For the first time in his life, he felt a spark of contempt for his surname. "To the office, then?" She had said it was in Shibuya, right?

"Not quite," she said, pulling the van door open just wide enough for him to see Lin in the driver's seat, a clipboard resting on his lap as he waited. Naru thought for a moment that he looked rather squished there like his head was in danger of scraping the roof. Mai stepped into the van saying, "Our new case is in Shibuya."

"Is that so?" He didn't make to climb into the van after her but rather watched her curiously until she buckled her seatbelt.

She looked over at him, patting the only remaining seat beside her.

He eyed it dubiously. "Is there a back seat?" He wasn't looking forward to being squished in together between Mai and the hard door. "Or maybe I can just take the train..."

"Don't be ridiculous, Naru-chan. Get in here before you make us late."

With a sigh of exasperation and exaggerated grunt of effort, he clambered, slowly, into the van ー his muscles were still aching ー pulling the door shut behind him. There was more space than he'd thought, a good few inches between himself and Mai even if he brushed her elbow as he buckled his seat belt.

As soon as he sat back against his seat, backpack jammed between his knees, Mai pressed a thin yellow folder onto his lap.

"That's the interview notes and preliminary findings," she said in answer to his unspoken question, "you should familiarize yourself with it before we get there."

Casting her a sideways glance, he flipped the thin folder open to reveal a page full of text. "When did you find the time to interview someone?"

"Didn't I tell you yesterday?" her voice held a hint of agitation, but it was difficult to tell whether it was due to his curiosity, their proximity, or the after-school traffic they were merging into. "I had this case picked out before your principal came to me about the school."

Naru glanced down at the wall of text. In the top right corner of the page with the date from two weeks ago, followed closely by a line that read 'client name' and two characters that he wasn't sure should be read Ejiri or Eshiri (江尻). There were several lines under the name there that read out an address in Shibuya. That must have been where they were heading now. There were several lines beneath that captioned 'additional information' on which was only two words:

'Under construction.'

Naru scowled at the line, wondered briefly if his name had appeared there in the file for his school. Kazuya Shibuya, he was sure it would have read, glorified house pet.

Beneath that were lines of notes. Unlike the rest of the document, this part was handwritten; scribbled hastily in a thin, girly, English scrawl. He felt his scowl deepen. The sentences themselves were disjointed and rushed as if whoever had written them had been busy with something else.

'Activity started around time of construction. Small items going missing. Feeling of being watched. Reported witnessing a semi-full body apparition in the kitchen area. Cold spots. Possible residual haunting. Tisane = 2'

Semi-full body apparition? Residual haunting? Naru shook his head, more to clear off the impending headache than anything. Had Gene ever mentioned any of this? Did he know what a residual haunting, or whatever, was? "What is Tisane?" he found himself asking, half hoping to rid himself of the sudden thought of his brother.

"So, you can read English then?" Mai said, with an amused smile yet the look didn't seem to make it to her eyes. It looked more like she was affirming a suspicion under the cover of amusement.

Naru bristled, irritation rising. It wasn't like he had been trying to hide it from her. He seethed, "I'm not an idiot. Though, you did interrupt my English class yesterday…"

"Tisane," Mai started, not looking at him, but rather out the windshield. They were stopped at a red light. "was a French officer. He's the one who coined the nine classifications for poltergeists."

Poltergeists? Naru nodded to himself. That must have been "Wait," Naru said forced back into his seat by the cars acceleration. Something in the back of the van scraped across the metal bed. "Nine?"

Mai lifted her hand, ticking off her fingers as she rattled off, "Moving objects, opening and closing doors, disembodied noises, knocking, breaking glass, unnatural heating of objects, explosions, physical harm to a corporeal body, and possession. But that one is rare at best."

Naru blinked at her, thinking. Four of those classifications he had experience in the old school house; he pictured the doors once again swinging open and slamming shut over and over in his mind again, barring their only way out. They had managed to escape through the window, of course, but only after he had fallen victim to the bookcase. Then there was the knocking that had started it all. The glass windows shattering. Suddenly, Naru didn't quite feel so impressed with Mai.

At the time, he had thought her genius, even a little psychic in her own right, to be able to pick Kuroda-san as the source of the poltergeist on just speculation. However, now he knew exactly how she had done that. The school house had exhibited at least five of Tisane's classifications in just one day. It wasn't exactly a leap in logic to suspect one of the people there was causing it, especially if she trusted in Hara-san's abilities.

"God, when will this traffic end ー what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason," Naru peeled his eyes away from Mai's look of incredulity, resting his elbow on the window sill and leaning on it. If there were only two instances of Tisane's classifications, did that still mean it could be an instance of poltergeisting? Or did it have to reach a certain number before something like that became a problem? He opened his mouth to voice these such questions, but shut it almost instantly. Not knowing these simple things irritated him, but having to constantly ask for answers irritated him even more.

In hopes to damper the curiosity still muddling his thoughts, Naru gazed out the window and into the Tokyo traffic, resolving to visit a library on his next day off. If he was going to be working with Mai for the foreseeable future, he might as well learn himself.

.

.

Twenty minutes later, Lin-san pulled up to the curb of a building so towering that no matter how much Naru leaned against the window, he couldn't see the top.

They were greeted at the posh, revolving door by a boy Naru would have guessed was the same age as him. He was slightly shorter and stockier, dark hair framing a tanned face and dark eyes. His jeans and collared shirt made it seem like he had tried to dress up, but the dry paint smeared across his forearm and left temple gave him away.

"Taniyama-san! Nice to see you again!"

"Konnichiwa, Ejiri-san." Mai inclined her head, her short brown hair swaying in the wind as she straightened, "You remember Lin-san."

At the mention of his name, Lin-san gave a small bow, "Ejiri-san."

Ejiri-san spared a friendly smile to the stoic assistant, nodding once in remembrance before turning his attention to Naru, who hastily bent at the waist. "Kazuya Shibuya," he said, straightening, "nice to meet you, Ejiri-san."

"Ka..zuya-san?" Something akin to recognition screwed up his face as his eyes searched Naru's face. Recognition and a hint of fear.

Mai eyed them both, explaining slowly, "Naru-chan is a recent hire of mine. He will be assisting me on this case, that is, if you don't mind…?"

Ejiri-san blinked, turning back to Mai as if he had forgotten she was there. When her words finally registered in his brain he quickly rearranged his face to look abash. "Oh! Yes, I'm sorry. I just… thought I've met you somewhere before."

Gene, Naru's brain supplied, he must have meant Gene. Aware of Mai's curious gaze, Naru answered with an indifferent shrug, "I think this is the first we've met."

"Right, right," Ejiri-san waved his hands toward the elevators, "shall I show you the way up, then?"

The room was higher than he had expected. As they ascended, higher and higher, a tendril of something he couldn't distinguish coiled in his gut. Inside his pocket, his hands were growing clammy as he watched the electronic green number display reach the 60's. Swallowing rather harder than he'd meant to, Naru forced his gaze away from the number and up to the elevator car's ornate wooden crown molding as their momentum seemed to slow.

The intercom gave a short ding to announce their arrival and the doors opened. The decor in the hallway was more or less the same as it'd been in the lobby; the walls were painted a dark royal purple color and the same ornate crown molding from the elevator duplicated itself down the entirety of the hall. There were wide windows set at regular intervals on the right side of the hall. The first time the group passed one, Naru made the mistake of looking out; while it must have been the best view of the crowded Shibuya city center for miles, the same queasiness that settled in his stomach during the elevator ride resurged, leaving him feeling less than impressed.

The apartment they were investigating was the third door down. Ejiri-san opened it with a swipe of his key-card and the four of them filed in. Or, they tried to. Mai had frozen, completely still and blocking the doorway as Ejiri-san, who Naru could just barely see over Mai's shoulder, waved a hand vaguely. "I apologize for the mess. We're remodeling."

"Mai?" Naru was hyper aware of Lin-san standing behind him, burning holes into the back of his head as he tapped Mai on the shoulder. "This hallway is kinda cramped."

"Huh?" She turned slightly, brown eyes distant. They roamed non-fixedly over his face as if not really seeing him at all. He tried a smile, leaning back, suddenly feeling they were a bit too close. Then she blinked and, just like that, whatever spell had held her so transfixed was broken. Her cheeks tinged a light pink as if she could feel the awkwardness incubating in the short space between them. "Sorry," she mumbled, moving into the apartment and freeing the doorway.

Naru let out a long breath, feeling that he could finally do so without worrying if his breath smelled like his lunch or not. He didn't particular like being at close quarters with anyone besides his brother, but in spite of that, he felt a pang of loss at her sudden absence. Yet, still acutely aware of Lin-san watching him closely in the hall just behind him, Naru followed Mai inside the small apartment.

His shoes scuffed against a long, thin wooden board that seemed to take up most of the floor in the apartment as he came to a standstill a few feet behind Mai. Beside him, some parts of the wall were chipped and some replaced entirely with new sheets of drywall. From where he could see, further down the hall, there seemed to be no doors but large square openings that lead from room to room. Not to mention, the whole place reeked of dust.

Customarily, it was polite to take off shoes when entering a residence in Japan, however, Naru fought the urge. All he needed was to accidentally step on a stray nail or a wood splinter. Thankfully, neither Mai nor Lin-san made to take of their shoes either.

Whatever daydream Mai had been having earlier apparently left her feeling a bit inquisitive. She held a hand up to her chin, gazing around the deconstructed hall in interest. "You said during your interview that the activity started after the renovation?"

"Uh, yes." Ejiri-san said.

"Why were you remodeling?"

"The previous owner had this apartment custom built to resemble the very old, traditional Japanese style. Every room had tatami mats and shouji instead of doors, but due to a pipe leak from one of the upper floors, almost all the tatami and drywall were ruined." Ejiri-san guided them out of the entrance way, indicating the pale lines left in the wood floor where the tatami must have been. "My father is an electrician and he knew it would be just as expensive to remodel the whole place as it would be to replace all the tatami. I prefer the western style to the traditional Japanese style anyway, so we both agreed to do the remodel."

"Hm..." Mai hummed, a thoughtful expression smoothing her face. She nodded as if coming to some silent conclusion and gestured down the hallway. "Could you show me where the activity happened?"

"Of course. Oh, but first," Ejiri-san crossed the hall quickly to what looked to be one of the only functioning doors and swung it open to reveal a relatively small, empty room. "You can use this room to store all your equipment. I remember you asked about one over the phone the other day."

"Thank you," Mai bowed quickly, then turned on the spot. "Naru, bring up the equipment."

"Whaー" he blanched. Really, he should have known it was coming, but the ache in his arms and legs from the last time he'd heard those words made it easier to pass from complacent worker to annoyed teen. "You've got to be kidding me. We're ー we're seventy floors up!" He gestured to the big plate windows that covered nearly the entire living room wall for good measure.

"Seventy-three," Mai corrected, "and my equipment is no use to me on the ground floor. Lin, could you help him, please."

The tall Chinese man didn't look too keen on bringing up the heavy equipment either or maybe it was spending more than five minutes in Naru's presence that gave him that dreary look. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, Lin-san may have looked like that all the time. It was hard to tell; his bangs hid half his face on a good day.

Naru watched him give an almost imperceptible nod before heading for the door.

Mai glanced at him over the file she was now rereading, the same one he read from earlier, "If it's any consolation, Naru, I am at least playing you now."

That's true, he thought, relenting. Lin-san was already waiting for the elevator doors to open when Naru caught up with him. The awkward air between them was palpable as they stood, side by side, listening to the faraway din of the elevator bell. Neither of them attempted to initiate a conversation.

The long elevator ride proved just as silent and awkward as the wait in the hallway that by the time they reached the van still parked along the sidewalk, Naru was sure the older man was purposely ignoring him. He pulled boxes from the front seat of the van, unfolded them, then expertly stacked several tapes, wires, and expensive looking camera lenses in one box, and wooden planks, metal bars, bearings, and screwdrivers in the other.

Lin-san carefully lifted the one with the camera lenses, leaving Naru to struggle to lift the one with the wooden planks. When he was a few steps away, he turned his uncovered on the struggling teen. "Can you carry it?"

Naru scowled, but the effect was lost when he jerked suddenly to stop one of the metal pipes from falling. "Fine ー fine. I'm fine."

They trudged back through the lobby, Naru made a point to not think about the impending awkwardness or the fact that he forearms were already burning. He allowed his eyes to roam over the golden trim, carved oriental relief, and vases of plastic flowers littering the front desk area before they inevitably focused on the girl standing behind it. She was short with a round face, and chestnut brown eyes that were staring right at him. A blush raged across her cheeks as she looked away from his attention and Naru bit back a sigh.

Could he go anywhere without attracting attention?

The elevator dinged. Lin-san set his foot on the small bar, keeping the doors open long enough for himself and Naru to slip past. Somehow, once inside, he managed to press the button for floor 73 and the pair once again lapsed into silence.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naru studied the Chinese man. He must have been at least a head taller than himself and square-shouldered. The eye that wasn't hidden behind the long lock of black hair was a dark grey color and focused intently on the elevator door. Naru looked that way too; they were just passing the fortieth floor and yet the tension was as thick and uncomfortable as it had been the second they got in. Naru shifted the heavy box, trying to ease the cramp beginning to form in forearms, but it proved too heavy. When the box tipped and one of the metal poles slipped from the it's precarious position across the top and clanged to the floor, Naru made a show of setting the box down and kneeling to retrieve it.

By the time he righted himself, box in hand, the intercom chimed and the doors slid open.

They shuffled through the doors, dropped off their boxes, then headed back down to do it all over again. Twenty minutes and three equally awkward trips later, all the necessary cameras, tripods, mics, wires, and monitors were stacked in a frantic pile beside the front door. Naru, who had been injured on his last trip, kicked the corner of the offending box in frustration, thumb still throbbing from where it had been scraped.

"Please refrain from breaking my equipment, Naru-chan."

He twisted around. Mai stood in the archway connecting the room they were using as base to the hall where Mai and Ejiri-san had been conversing in low voices. She still had her clipboard in hand, her big, round, amused brown eyes locking on his. He didn't bother restraining the irritation in his voice as he said, "if I have to lift so much as another kilogram..."

"You'll what? Kick in the monitors? They didn't do anything to you, Naru-chan." She replied in an almost sing-song voice, "break something and you'll have to pay me back~"

Naru folded his arms over his chest, searching her face, wondering if she were being serious. The paycheck was only reason he took this job in the first place, and if Mai were being serious... he glared back down at the equipment laid out at his feet, finger still throbbing, but he could feel his irritation fading.

He must have looked defeated because Mai suddenly nudged his elbow, all sarcasm gone. "C'mon, let's get the cameras set up so we can have dinner."

Naru sighed loudly but hung his head in dissent. "...Fine."

"You get the kitchen." Mai intoned, hoisting a camera up from the pile and snatching a handful of wires from another. "I'll set up the bedroom. Those seem to be the only hotspots for now."

"...right." Naru mimicked her, resting the heavy camera on his hip and coiling the wires around his wrist.

They walked together down the hall until they reached the first archway where they split. He went right, into the spacious, deconstructed kitchen, and she kept straight until she got to the archway that lead to the first of the two bedrooms.

Naru set to work right away, eager to get it over with. He wasn't exactly sure how to go about wiring the signal back to the monitors they had yet to set up in base, but he unfurled the handful of wires and grounded the tripod.

Mai hadn't exactly taught him where each wire should have gone, but it was easy enough, as long as he didn't overthink it. He set the camera on the extended tripod and began to push the wires into their rightful places when he heard a sort of... scuffling. He tensed. Was it possible for an apartment on the 73rd floor to have rats? And why was it suddenly so cold in here?

Naru shivered, casting his eyes over the ceiling, searching for a vent. Mai must have turned on the A/C, he reasoned, after all, it would only get hotter in here once all the cameras were set up. Somehow, though, he knew it wasn't the A/C that sent more shudders with up his spine. He took a step back. The lights overhead had begun to flicker, emitting a shrill tick that sounding like ice cracking.

"Maiー" his voice caught in his throat. As he turned to shout down the hall a snach of black caught his eye. His pulse leapt. His eyes landed on the wrinkled sweater-vest, then up, over the man's ashen face. It wasn't what he thought it was, he berated himself, why did he jump to that conclusion? Breathing deeply, Naru hazard a low chuckle, "Sorry, you, uh, are you Ejiri-san's dad?"

The man didn't move. His deep black eyes were narrowed, staring at him. No, not at him; through him.

Unable to stop his shivering now, Naru tried again, "Sir?"

The man wavered, the sun temporarily shining through the suddenly transparent portions of the man's dark brown jacket. The breath caught in Naru's chest. Immediately, he could feel his brain whirring, desperately grasping for some explanation.

He closed his eyes, lifting his hands in front of his face to protect himself, but all he felt was a torrent of freezing wind, almost as if ice itself had solidified around his body. His chest tightened; the breath caught in his throat as the inexplicable feeling of disquiet and exhaustion settled over him in unison. Then the chill was gone. The air in the kitchen wafted cozily around, thawing his numb fingers. He could feel the sun beaming once again across the dismantled floor, warning the bottom of his black pants, yet still, he didn't move. Whether it was because he couldn't, or wouldn't, he didn't know, but it took all the strength left in him to open his eyes. His heart was still thumping, hard in his ears, the veins in his neck visibly jumping.

He took what was supposed to be a deep, calming, breath, but it ended up sounding something near a whimper. When he did finally manage to open his eyes again, the kitchen was empty.

Whatever it was hadn't simply moved, it had gone right through him. Or, at least... he pressed a hand to his chest. At least that's what it felt like. Had... had anyone else seen that? Felt the air grow cold?

Naru shook his head and turned, staring pointedly at the camera's glassy, unseeing lens. Of all the times for it not to be recording… in one motion he picked the thin charging cord from the ground and plugged it into the nearest outlet. Instantly the cameras display lit and there was an audible whirring as it started recording. If it had been plugged in... would it have caught it all on camera?

He scoffed. This was ridiculous. Hadn't he been so adamant about the nonexistence of ghosts only a couple hours ago? Naru shook his head again, so vigorously that his bangs whipped him in the eye. He pressed a cold palm to his eye to ease the stinging and blinked, cyclops like, at the small red recording light. First that dream about the old school house collapsing, now this.

Naru sighed, checked the cameras angle once more and left for the base, thinking. He really needed to fix his sleeping problem; especially if he was going to start hallucinating.


	9. Misplaced

Zōshigaya is the name of a cemetery near Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan.

Hanami festival is the Japanese flower viewing festival that takes place in the spring.

"Dialogue in English."

"Normal dialogue."

"Dialogue with written Japanese."

Chapter 8  
Misplaced

Despite what he told himself, Naru couldn't shake the eerie tingle that ran up his spine as he turned his back on the empty kitchen. He hastened from the room, telling himself that it was because he was hungry and tired and not because he was scared. He hadn't even managed three steps when, half-blind, he bumped into Lin-san.

Being several inches shorter than the Chinese man and at least a few kilos lighter, Naru was the one who was forced backward upon impact. He grunted in surprise, stumbling back into the archway. "S-sorry, Lin-san. I didn't see you," he said, bowing.

From this angle, Lin-san's expression was even more dark and stony than usual. Though, through that, Naru thought he sensed a hint of confusion coming from his slightly hiked shoulders. Or, he admitted, that could be irritation. However, his demeanor grew more pensive as he glared down at Naru. "Where is Mai?"

All train of thought sputtered, momentarily befuddled. Something about that one sentence was unnerving to Naru. It only took him a moment to realize that it was because Lin-san hadn't used an honorific with Mai's name. Which was to be expected, he told himself, Lin-san worked for BSPR too, and as far as he knew, they didn't use things like honorifics in Britain. "She'sー"

"Somebody say my name?" Mai's voice carried to them from down the hall. Naru and Lin-san both turned to watch her, hearing the pseudo-floor groan quietly under her weight as she stepped cautiously around a forgotten tool box. She looked up, expression piqued as she met the Chinese man's eyes. "What's wrong?"

He said, "The Mel Meter recorded a temperature drop."

Mai frowned, eyebrows stitching together. "But we haven't even set them up yet."

Naru waited for someone to explain to him was a Mel Meter was but, glancing between the two, he didn't think he was going to get one. Lin-san and Mai seemed to be having their own silent conversation and once again, he found himself questioning his own sanity. Has he really seen a ghost?

Spirits are quite shy, after all. Hadn't that been what Mai told him only a few days ago? If the apartment were haunted, how possible was it that the ghost responsible for all the activity would manifest itself right in front of a stranger within mere minutes. Naru frowned slightly to himself, thinking if he were the ghost, he would have put more effort into not getting himself exorcised.

Mai pulled him from his reverie, "Did you feel anything?"

Lin-san shook his head. "No."

She glanced sideways at Naru, who could instantly see that he was currently dealing with Researcher Mai. There was no way normal bubbly, clumsy Mai could maintain such a look of accusation. "Did you, Naru-chan?"

Naru tried very hard not to feel guilty under her scrutiny. He held no doubt it was the draft in the kitchen that causing the disruption, but that wasn't really significant, was it? He balanced a second on the thought of telling them what happened in the kitchen ー or what he deluded himself into thinking he saw. Would she think he was crazy? Or would she dismiss it and blame the error on him kicking her delicate instruments? "Um…" he hummed, but luckily, he was spared from having to explain himself.

All of a sudden, Mai turned on the spot, eyebrows creased. "Did you hear that?"

Lin-san remained stoically silent; Naru felt a bit like an idiot whispering, "hear what?"

She didn't answer right away. She tip-toed over to the archway across from the kitchen. Naru, having not seen this particular room yet, followed closely behind her, glancing over her shoulder. This room was virtual empty; the walls were made completely of new drywall and the barren floors were covered in a thin plastic sheet. The only object in the room was an old mahogany desk pushed into the far corner. It must have been the second bedroom.

Naru glanced once around the room and, after finding it just as mundane and disheveled as the rest of the apartment, he turned back to Mai.

"I thought I heard something," she said as he large brown eyes roamed slowly over the plastic sheet, searching. After a long minute, she turned from the room saying, "I guess not."

.

.

Base was starting to take shape. While Naru and Mai had been setting up cameras, Lin-san evidently had been constructing the metal shelves to house the array of monitors, which it didn't even seemed they would be using today. Wires were laid out along the floor, coiled in tight rings and sorted into groups. A feeling of extreme relief filled Naru's chest as he looked upon Lin-san with great gratuity. At least he wouldn't be roped into lifting all those monitors again.

Naru sat in the spindly computer chair left abandoned in the middle of the room as Mai and Lin-san appraised a small, remote like object with a bright red light. His legs were still shaky, the effects of his delusion maybe a bit more than he could take. He silently hoped he didn't look as uncomfortable as he felt.

Across the room, Mai deftly pressed button on the device, a series of high-pitched beeps denoting her progress. She stared intently at the tiny screen. "16-degrees centigrade. That's a five-degree drop."

Naru didn't think five-degrees was very much, especially when he thought how his fingers had been at risk of frostbite just a few minutes ago.

However, the look of interest contorting Mai's face said differently. She looked up from the screen, eyes skimming across the shelves where only two monitors were set up. "I'll write it down," Mai said, her soft voice at odds with the rest of her manner, "but I don't think we can count it as definitive. It could have been a minor tech malfunction ー where is my notebook?" Mai set down the Mel Meter, flipping through the remaining box of wires and sweeping hands around the monitors as if Lin-san may have placed it there on accident. She started the act with a mild pinched expression that quickly fell into a complete grimace by the time she'd exhausted all obvious places and demanded that Naru stand up in case he had accidentally sat on it.

"It's not here," he said, somewhat irritably to a red-faced Mai. "Didn't you have it when you went to set up the other camera?"

She seemed to think for a moment, still glaring at the empty chair as if it had offended her. "I'm not sure..." she said, then turned on her heel. The floorboards squeaked under her as she practically skipped into the hallway.

"Mai!" Lin-san bellowed after her. It took all Naru's self-control not to jump out of his skin.

"I'll be right back!" Mai's voiced echoed back.

Naru half expected Lin-san to follow after his young charge, but he just stood rooted in his spot, glaring at the empty doorway until Mai sauntered back through it looked even more disgruntled than before she'd left.

Naru felt it unnecessary to ask, but he did anyway. "Did you find it?"

She didn't answer, leveling him with as fierce a glare as Lin-san settled her with. Her expression wasn't half as menacing as the one-eyed Chinese mans. She trudged through the room, arms crossed, plopping unceremoniously down in the spindly chair with a loud hmph. Lin-san, apparently having deemed Mai officially out of danger, turned back to fiddling with the wires spilling out from the back of the monitors.

Naru watched with appreciation, having no intention of offering to help the man. He stuck his hands deep in his school pants pockets, eyeing Mai. She was still red in the face but the anger had given way to concern. She used her legs to spin herself in a slow circle, watching the floor spin beneath her with determined interest.

"Are you sure you didn't leave it in the van?"

"I don't know." She said sternly, but her shoulders drooped.

"If you weren't so scatterbrained..." he trailed off. For some reason, he felt uneasy. Something about Mai's defeated form spurred him on; he'd much rather see her angry than depressed. "Well, it is you. So I guess it can't be helped."

It worked. Mai kicked the ground so hard in her renewed anger that she sent herself and the chair spinning wildly a few feet backward. "Whatever. Lin, is everything ready?

Lin-san had just flipped a switch and now both the monitors were displaying a bright blue screen. He ignored Mai as he typed some long string out on the laptop, and the blue screens flickered in response. Some more typing and suddenly they black out, then flickered again to life, each displaying their respective rooms; the kitchen labeled CAM 1 and the bedroom labeled CAM 2.

"Yes," Lin-san said finally in a clipped tone, turning to inspect his work. Satisfied, he closed the laptop. "All the equipment is functional."

"Good, then we can leave."

"Leave?" Naru said. They'd just gotten here. Shouldn't they at least stay to investigate or something? Wasn't that what ghost hunters did?

"We can monitor all the readouts from Lin's laptop. There's really no point in staying here." Mai said just a tersely as before. She hopped up from the computer chair and lead Naru into the hall. Lin-san followed close behind them, lugging the thin silver laptop and black charging cable under one arm. Mai held the door open for them and turned to lock it once they were all once again in the hallway.

Naru, however, just realized they were still one person short. "Wait. Where did Ejiri-san go?"

"He left a while ago." Mai said, punching a short code into the number pad beside the scanner. "He said he had to meet his father or something."

Naru hm'd, disconcerted. He didn't know if he felt comfortable being left alone in someone else's house. He knew there was no way he would ever dream of leaving Mai in his apartment without his constant vigilance; the questionable existence of a ghost in said residence notwithstanding.

.

.

The drive to Naru's apartment was just as awkward, if not more awkward than any of the days numerous elevator rides. Somehow Naru had known something like this might occur and he insisted that he could take the train back to his apartment, but Mai was more forceful than normal and threatened to doc his pay if he 'didn't get in the damn van'. Lin-san didn't speak a word the entire time while Naru recited directions, but he kept sneaking sideways glances at Mai, who was making an effort not to look at either Naru nor Lin-san. She stared determinedly out the windshield as they pulled up to the curb of a small, four-story housing complex.

Naru unbuckled his seatbelt and searched his bag for his keys before sliding out of the van. "Uh, thanks for the ride, Lin-san."

He nodded.

"Well..." Naru grabbed the side of the door to push it closed. "Goodnight, then."

Mai still didn't look at him. "We will be by in the morning to pick you up." she said, her voice flat. It was clear she was still irritated. Was she really this upset about a notebook?

He nodded and pushed the vans door closed. He could hear the vans engine grumble submissively as they pulled away from the curb and disappeared down the vacant street. Well, that was certainly interesting. He walked the short path up to the winding staircase that lead to the upper floors. There was an elevator just inside the first-floor hallway, but he thought he'd had enough of them for today.

He managed to make it up the two flights of stairs and push the door to his apartment open before his thoughts turned to what may or may not have happened in that deconstructed kitchen. Now so far away in both time and distance, he was having trouble recalling the fuzzy details. He thought he had seen a figure in the empty space, he even talked to it, but was it possible it'd all be a trick of the light?

He tried to remember the feeling his frozen fingers but it only succeeded in making him suddenly exhausted. It was as if the mere memory of the day's events had sucked out all the energy from his body, leaving him muscles aching and his limbs tingling. He'd shut the door behind him, locked it, and barely managed to strip down to his boxers before falling into his unmade bed. He had the thought that maybe he should call and ask Gene for… something... but he fell asleep with the small flip phone cradled in his palm.

.

.

Anyone who would bother to watch the live feed from the camera in the Ejiri apartment would have been hard-pressed to find even a single misplaced sound. For hours it seemed there would be no discernable activity, though the SPR mechanical assistant dutifully logged and filed away every piece of retrievable information. However, even Lin-san had given it up as a bad job and gone to sleep by the time the four o'clock hour came around. And so, there was no witness for what was about to happen. No witnesses; except for the two high definition cameras.

On playback, the whirring of the machinery could be heard by the keenest of ears, the only noise in the complete silence. Then, at exactly the moment the clocks of Tokyo, Japan switched over to four, the voices began.

They started as mere blips; mild disturbances in the ambiance of the recording. As the second ticked by, they swelled in volume. The lights flickered. A loud buzzing filled the microphone as if something were interfering with the frequency.

"This is ー fault!"

"My fault? I ー you not to ー stupid deal!"

"ーLiar!"

"ーCheat!"

"All ー fault ー"

The buzzing grew louder and louder until there was nothing else. A sound like a man's furious scream; then suddenly, a whisper. Words formed within the static, barely discernible, yet there was no doubt they were there. "Tell them the truth."

At the stroke of five after four, just as suddenly as they began the voices ceased. The static fell away and the apartment returned to the pre-dawn silence. In two hours' time, the investigators would wake. They would rewind the recordings, hear those ghostly voices, and race to return to the empty apartment.

But, for now, all was silent and still.

.

.

When Mai had said 'we will pick you up in the morning' he really hadn't thought she meant 7a.m. The sky behind his thin blinds was still dark, the only light in the room coming from the face of his cell phone as it vibrated itself in a circle on the floor.

Naru had groaned, feeling the floor until he found the offending device and flipped it open without opening his eyes. Only one person could have been calling him so early. "What do you want, Gene?"

"Well," a high, girlish voice answered. "Good morning to you too, Naru-chan."

"Mai?" His eyes snapped open, jerking the phone away to read out the number. It was long and unfamiliar, definitely foreign. "How did you get my number?"

"I have my ways," she said mysteriously, obviously in a better mood than she had been yesterday. "We are pulling up to your apartment now. Are you ready?"

"Are you kidding me?" He eyed the small bar the top of the screen where a blue banner displayed the time. "It's 7:30."

"That it is," she said, "it's also partly cloudy with a slight chance of rain. If you were interested."

Something about her accent sounded... wrong. It was so slight he thought at first it was due to the static of the phone that was marring her near perfect Japanese, yet that somehow didn't fit. It was almost as if she was speaking in a meld of several accents, vaguely adapted to fit the flow of the language. For the first time, Naru was forced to remember that Mai was from London, not Tokyo.

Naru rubbed his eyes with the back of his fist. "I wasn't." But now he knew he would be bringing an umbrella, just in case.

"Hey, Naru-chan?" she paused for half a second. He could hear her breathing on the other end of the phone. Was she running? "What's your apartment number?"

"221." He said, pushing the covers back. "Wait. Why?"

"Okay, I'll be up in a minute."

"Maiー!" The phone line disconnected. He snapped it shut, jumping out of bed. "Damn it!" He smelled like a mixture of dust and sweat from yesterday, but he highly doubted Mai would allow him time to take a shower. She would probably break down the door if he kept her waiting for too long. He lingered for a second on the thought of Mai barging into the bathroom while taking said shower, then, feeling his cheeks burn, he shoved the thought away.

He grabbed a shirt from his closet at random pulling it over his head as he scoured the floor for a relatively clean pair of boxers ー he should have done laundry when he had the chance. Locating a clean pair of pants was the hardest. It took him a full two minutes of digging through the closet before he finally settled on a pair of Gene's work pants. They were black and more formal than he would have liked but he didn't see many other options.

Just as he was pulling one of Gene's brown belts around his waist to make sure they wouldn't fall, he heard the front door creak open and a ringing sing-song voice call out his name. "Wake up, Naru-chan~!"

"What?" he slid open the door separating the bedroom from the living room. "How did youー"

Mai stood just inside the doorway, white blouse made blue by the light of the rising sun. She smiled knowingly, waving a small silver key pinched between her thumb and forefinger. "You know, you really shouldn't keep your spare key under the welcome mat. It's a bit predictable."

Naru blanched, "That is breaking and entering."

"No, I just told you. I used the key."

He wanted to argue, but he already felt exposed with his belt still undone. He turned quickly away from her to buckle it.

"Do you live here with your parents?" Naru leveled Mai with a pointed glare over his shoulder but she only continued to look innocently around the cozy apartment.

"No."

Mai huffed, frowning as she scrutinized the space. Even if it was small, it was kept impeccably clean. There wasn't so much as a chopstick out of place, unless you counted the hardback novel lying on the edge of the table, but somehow it almost seemed as if it belonged there. "You mean you live alone?"

"No."

"No?"

"I live with my brother. He's currently out of the country." Naru paused in the doorway. Why did he say that? He turned away, frustrated with the way his heart beat harder as Mai caught his eye, chewing absently on her bottom lip.

"Is that who Gene is?" she asked, "Where are your parents?"

"Zōshigaya." Naru offered, shrugging.

Mai had barely managed to stammer out a surprised, "O-oh...I'm sorry for your loss." She gave a quick bow.

Naru waved her off, "I'm ready, let's go."

"Oh, wait." She said, still looking a bit abashed, "Um, you should pack an overnight bag. I have a feeling it's going to be a long day."

He half turned toward the bedroom but stopped, "Why? Did something happen?"

"Well, yes. I'll show you once we get back downstairs."

Feeling thoroughly annoyed, he said, "You could have said that over the phone, you know."

"Yes," Mai nodded, "I could have, but this was faster."

He rolled his eyes. Well, at least they were done talking about his parents. "Anyway, I just need a few things. I won't be long." He thought he should have offered her a cushion to sit on while she waited but he couldn't trust his own brain not to say anything else needlessly revealing about his life. He had taken refuge in the small bedroom, sliding the door shut hard behind him. The last thing he needed was for her to see the mess he made in his haste to get dressed.

He rummaged through the closet, pulling whatever he touched off the hangers and stuffing them into a small overnight bag. There was no telling if he would be able to get a shower in anytime soon, but he threw in an extra shirt and another pair of work pants he stole from Gene's drawer.

There, that should do it. Naru zipped the bag and slid the door back open, pausing to double back to retrieve his toothbrush from the dresser. "Okay, I'm readyー" He halted in the doorway, bag slung over his shoulder as he spotted Mai bent over the kitchen bar stool. She looked... in awe.

It only took a second for him to realize she was staring at a picture of Gene from last spring when he had gone to the Hanami festival. Naru hadn't wanted to go and so Gene had gone with his then girlfriend (Naho or something or other) and had returned with this picture of himself and her, his arm draped loosely around the light-haired girl's shoulders and pink petals sticking out of their hair. They had broken up a few short weeks after that festival but Gene refused to put the picture away.

Of course, Mai would be looking at that picture. She probably thought it was him smiling in the photo. In fact, she probably thought all the photos scattered here and there around the apartment were of him. For a split second, Naru was almost relieved Mai hadn't seen any pictures of them two together. He would almost say that he... kind of like the idea of Mai never meeting Gene. But that was ridiculous. Hadn't he said so himself earlier? They were going to meet eventually so maybe this was just staying fate.

Naru adjusted the bag over his shoulder as Mai turned suddenly at the sound of his voice, a deep blush on her face. "I'm-I'm sorry."

"For what?" He asked, indifferent. He glanced at the picture as he passed, on his way to the entrance. "It's just a picture."

She almost seemed to blush deeper. "I-I didn't know you could smile..."

A pang of something hit him, making his stumble into his shoes. Mai was close behind him, cheeks still burning red. He wasn't sure what he should say to that, and the thought of Mai in the shower with him was beginning to creep, unbidden, back into his thoughts. He shrugged. "Everyone has the ability to smile, Mai."

Mai hmphed, avoiding his gaze as she stepped halfway into her other shoe and stomped out the front door with it nearly falling off her foot. "Let's go. Lin's waiting."

Yeah, Naru thought to himself, pulling his shoes on with undue haste. After yesterday, he had decided that he would rather take a ghost over upsetting the Chinese man any day.

.

.

A/N: I was going to stop it here, but I wrote this bit from Gene's point of view at the last second. So, as a consolation for my infrequent updates, here's a bit of an update from England!

Chapter 8.5  
The Whittocks

Gene hugged his elbows, arms crossed across his chest. He didn't know why they (read SPR) kept the observation room so cold. He was here, behind the one-way mirror so that he wouldn't make the poor woman nervous and skew the results, not so he could freeze to death.

The older women on the other side of the glass wasn't cold at all ー in fact, a thin sheen of sweat had glazed over her forehead. She slumped over the edge of the small lap table, turning a small, tarnished gold ring over and over in one hand. Gene regarded the tactic with familiar skepticism. He had seen at least two others perform the same trick earlier that day, and neither one of them had any of the 'abilities' they claimed to possess.

A middle-aged man with a mop of curly blond hair and black-rimmed glasses sat on the other end of the table. He held a pen poised over a spiral notebook, turned to a fresh, blank page, and waited.

Gene waited, too, teeth clenched against the cold. By the time the women finally spoke, minuscule goosebumps had pocked the bare skin of his forearms.

"I see… a young girl." Her shaky tenor voice held a pained, far-away quality to it. She flipped the ring over in her palm, "She's... crying. Very upset. She's just lost her husband, yes. This was her husband's ring."

Martin Davis adjusted his glasses with the side of his palm, busily scribbling down notes. "Can you tell me the girls name? Or her husbands?"

Their voices echoed, technologically amplified inside the observation room. Gene repressed the frown that threatened to damper his mood even further. This wasn't the first time one of SPR's "gifted" psychics got their information wrong, and he was beginning to doubt if any of them were truly psychic at all. It was almost painful to watch the woman struggle knowing full well that if it had been his younger brother sitting in aluminum chair, he would have been able to rattle off more than just their names with complete accuracy. In fact, hadn't he seen him correctly identify the address of a lost cat just by scratching behind its ear?

"The young girl's name… I'm getting a strong 'D' sound. Something like Diana or Dorothy…" The women lifted her face, eyes still closed. She rocked slightly in her seat, "And the mans… definitely a 'J' name. Like John… or James."

"Right," Martin jotted down some more notes that Gene couldn't make out, "Is that all?"

She flipped the ring around her fingers, eyebrows pinched so hard in concentration that her forehead was turning white. Finally, she opened her misty blue eyes. "Yes, I believe so. The emotions attached to this ring are very unhappy, almost overwhelmingly so. It's hard to get a good idea of its owners in a short reading."

"Yes, thank you for your participation, Lucy. You know SPR is just trying to move to the more scientifically side of paranormal research."

"Yes, I quite understand, Martin dear."

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries and shared a familiar hug before Martin escorted her out of the lab room. Gene rubbed his arms again. Lucinda Fenske, 76-years-old, self-professed psychic medium, employed by SPR since it's conception. But was she a real psychic? Gene chewed his lip, staring blankly at the abandoned lab table. It had been so easy to tell that the others ー Charles, Irene, Arthur ー were faking it right from the start. All three claimed to possess psychometry abilities yet none had been able to correctly identify the owner of the ring. They'd all gone on extravagant stories of eighteenth century England making up details as they came to them, taking cues from the observers' body language. Gene had quickly proved all of them fakes.

Lucinda was different; she hadn't told any kind of wild story. Instead, she kept the details simple, making claims that could apply to a wide variety of situations. It was called the Forer effect; Gene knew it well and had studied it deeply. It was a classic tactic used by fake mediums everywhere.

Lucinda had given a vague detail and then gave an excuse for not being more specific. While he had to admit that it was sometimes true that reading was more difficult when strong emotions were getting in the way. Maybe she'd really had seen something; but he was pretty sure Luella Davises' grandfather whom the ring belonged to, was named Wilhelm, not James.

The lights flicked on, temporarily blinding Gene.

"Well?" Martin offered his notebook to the young teenager, letting the soundproof door swing closed behind him. "What do you think?"

Gene paused, looking at the notes but not taking them. Lucinda was a dear friend of the Davises; how would they take to questioning her abilities?

Almost as if Martin could read his thoughts, he smiled, "I want your honest opinion, Yuujin."

"She's…" Gene searched for the right word, "…vague."

"Yeah, well," Martin let out a soft, unamused laugh, "she always has been a bit ambiguous. It was kind of part of her mystique."

Gene thought 'mystique' should have meant 'act'. Watching Lucinda attempt to read the energy attached to the ring was less like witnessing a psychic at work and more like watching a well-practiced actress reciting her lines. He held back a sigh. He wished he had more time to think it over but ー he checked his watch; it was already 3 o'clock. If they didn't leave soon he would miss his plane. "I guess."

Martin gestured to the door. They could discuss this on the way to the office. "Do you think she has any potential?"

"Unfortunately not." They walked side by side down the long hallway connecting the lab rooms to what Gene had taken to calling the Square. It was an open room that took up the whole center of the floor and filled with desks with computers and screens and research materials. Around the edges of the Square were small private offices with tall glass windows looking out over the researchers.

Martin lead Gene up the small catwalk on the other side of the room that lead up and around the Square, leading to another private hallway where the main offices were. "That is unfortunate, but necessary."

Gene wouldn't have gone quite that far. He thought Lucinda and perhaps some of the others really did possess some type of skill ー just not the one that was useful for SPR's research.

They walked down the hall, away from the Square, and down another hall where Martin's office was. He stopped Gene just outside the glass door. "Hold on, I should give Luella a call. She'll be upset if she doesn't get to see you off at the airport. I'll meet you in the lobby if you want."

Gene nodded, he wasn't about to say no to one last look around the huge SPR building. He walked slowly back down to the Square where the elevators were, taking in all the big, decoratively furnished offices, stopping to look longer at the portrait of Henry Slade; one of the first tested mediums. It was almost ironic that he was also one of the first to be prove a fraud.

"Yuujin-san!" A low, grating voice called his name across the quite hall. Gene tried not to cringe. Nigel Whittock, one of the resident mediums, was jogging to catch up with him. He'd only met Nigel Whittock and his younger sister, Grace, a few days into his few weeks stay and the pair had thrown him since. They were odd; Nigel was out-spoken; self-assured to the point that he was almost wild. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way that charmed him to the rest of SPR. "I was hoping I would be able to catch you on your way out. I heard what you did to Sir Charles. What a shame, the poor bloke."

"…Yeah." Gene turned away. He wouldn't say that he particularly liked Nigel or his sister, but if he had to choose, he would rather Grace. At least she was kind and considerate, the complete opposite of her older brother.

"What's that?"

Gene stopped, unsure what he was referring to until he saw Nigel's finger pointed at his hand. He reluctantly offered his palm with the old ring still in it. Nigel's smirk grew. He gestured to it. "May I?"

"By all means."

He picked it up carefully, so that his fingers never touched Gene's bare skin.

Once safely in his hands, he turned the ring over in the same way the others did except this time Gene could see a hint of apprehension behind his icy gaze. It was not unlike Noll's expression after a bit of psychometry. He said, "This is the wedding ring of a man named Wilhelm Thordou."

Gene waited, feigning patience. He felt if he gave the boy the slightest inclination that he was right ー which he was ー it would be like admitting defeat.

Gene had to admit that his abilities were authentic, but that didn't stop the feeling of distrust he felt. He and Nigel possessed the same talents; yet Gene had been saddled with something more. A 'perfect medium' they were calling him now. His talents were apparently infallible thus far, and Nigel it seemed, hated him for it. The icing in the cake was Martin's request that Gene interview with all the resident mediums at SPR and gauge their talent level. He felt that Nigel's icy glare had been a proclamation of war.

Nigel turned the ring over once more in his hand then dropped it back into Gene's open palm.

"He's still alive." Nigel laughed, a high tinkling noise that reminded Gene (with some amusement) of the school's lunch bell. "That's a dirty trick, Yuujin-chan. But, of course, only a true psychic could see that."

Gene pocketed the ring. He'd have to remember to give it back to Luella when he saw her. "Yes, well, that was the point, wasn't it?"

Nigel's smile turned sour. He closed the space between him, seizing Gene by the collar. They were so close now Gene could make out the flecks of gold in the other boys' hazel eyes. "You better watch your back here, Yuujin. Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

Gene didn't particularly feel threatened but he suddenly found himself wishing he possessed Grace's talent for PK-MT. "What am I doing?"

"Don't act dumb." Nigel hissed. As he pulled away, relinquishing his hold on Gene's collar, a smile worked at his lips. "Oh, and don't worry," he said loudly, chuckling as if they were old chums, "I'm sure your brother is fine. It was just a minor accident, after all."

Gene felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Noll?" he asked. Then it registered. He was wearing Noll's old button up, the one he must have packed by accident. And had Nigel used psychometry on it. His stomach dropped. Would he know instinctively if something happened to him? He wasn't sure. The fact that he hadn't spoken to Noll in two days wasn't helping either. Though, refusing to look alarmed, Gene forced a smile, "If you'll excuse me ー" he said lightly, "I have a plane to catch."

A/N: Okay, well. That was fun. As always, a humongous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for being the most amazing beta's out there.

Read, relax, and review!

ELV


	10. Disembodied Voices

This chapter is specially dedicated to everyone over at GhostHuntHQ for recommending my work on their Tumblr page along with the incredible fanart comic by soulsborne123. 

Chapter 9  
Disembodied Voices

They'd spent the better part of the morning reviewing the camera feed with nothing to show for it but tired, unfocused eyes and empty stomachs. The cameras captured nothing. No, that was an understatement. Although the audio was quite intriguing, the camera visual capabilities seemed to have gone mysteriously fuzzy ー nearly identical to the static from when Kuroda-san erased the footage of herself trapping Matsuzaki-san. There had been no one here to erase the data this time. They'd confirmed that when they'd met Ejiri-san at the base of the building when they'd first arrived.

Mai slipped off her earphones, pausing the audio recording after playing it for what felt like the hundredth time. She tapped her pen against the pile of loose leaf paper she'd taken to writing notes on (she was still a bit peeved about the missing notebook), "It's definitely an argument."

"Most definitely," Naru agreed somewhat halfheartedly from his place on the floor behind her. She'd made this declaration almost as often as she'd rewound the tapes to listen again.

"Right. An argument between at least two people."

"A man and a woman." Naru clarified. He'd given up on the tapes after the tenth rewind, complaining that the bulky headphones made his ears hurt. Instead, he'd used his time to read through the case files more thoroughly. So far, he'd learned more about Mai's crappy kanji than the actual haunting; she kept messing up the stroke order. But there was something interesting at least. "Why did you take so many notes on the renovation process? Will that really help solve the case?"

"Well, no but sometimes the renovation correlates with the start of the haunting ー did you say a man and a woman?"

Naru looked up from the file resting on his knees to Mai, who had spun in her chair to look at him. "Yes. Well, mostly female." At Mai's frazzled expression he added, "You can't tell?"

She didn't answer but turned back around, replaced the headphones, and replayed the recording.

Naru watched as she closed her eyes to listen harder, eyebrows furrowing. A minute later, she opened her eyes and shook her head. "I can't."

It wasn't that he could hear something Mai couldn't, it was just that he was something of an expert in voices. It'd been forced on him after spending the better part of three years neighboring a couple who didn't seem to know how to behave civilly.

Seeing that Naru wasn't about to get up on her behalf, Mai pulled the headphone connection out of the computer tower so that a low static spilled out of the speakers. He gave Mai a half nod. She pressed a button on the keyboard and the recording played again.

"I ーyou not toーstupid deal!"

"This is ーfault!"

Naru wagged his finger, raising his voice to be heard over the growing static. "That one. The word 'fault' is a deeper tone... it's difficult to describe."

"ーLiar!"

"ーCheat!"

"All ーfaultー"

The static swelled to a head pounding volume. Closer to the speaker, Mai visibly flinched as the sound of a man's furious scream crackled through the speakers. Lin-san, who'd been working silently on his laptop at the other end of the table, looked distinctly disgruntled beneath his own set of headphones as the yell continued for a few long seconds. Then came the whisper; words forming within the static, barely discernible, yet there was no doubt they were there. "Tell them the truth."

He waited until the room had gone silent again before saying, "And that yell is definitely a man's. The rest is sort of high pitchedー"

He stopped. The voice was low, guttural. Almost a plea. Tell them the truth. He felt his heart leap in his throat. Somehow, he'd convinced himself it'd never happened; that what he'd seen and heard in the kitchen yesterday had been a weird sort of waking dream. A hallucination brought on by lack of sleep and or group think.

Mai didn't notice his sudden withdrawal. She replayed the recording once more, nodding, "Now that you say that..."

Didn't she hear it too? He watched her out of the corner of his eye, stomach knotting. It felt as if he'd been caught in a lie, waiting for Mai to notice. But Mai just slid the headphones off again with a pinched expression, pulling her paper toward. She scribbled something, paused, scratched it out, and wrote something else.

Instinctually, Naru's eyes found the monitor that was still projecting a wide-angle view of the deconstructed kitchen. The high afternoon sun made the chaos of the construction work look benevolent, but in his minds eyes, Naru could almost convince himself he could see the beginnings of the black figure forming in the golden steaks across the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said too quickly, forcing his gaze back to Mai who was gazing at him. She had the expression again, the same one she'd given him yesterday. As if he were a ghost and she could somehow see through him; as if she were analyzing him.

Naru cleared his throat and flipped the page of the thick file, eyes skimming unseeingly over more detailed notes about the original state of the house. He'd only glazed over another detailed paragraph about the remodel when he heard the scraping of paper against plastic. Mai barely chanced a glance as he picked up the thin file she'd apparently slid over to him. The front of the folder was blank, no heading. He blinked at it. "What is this?"

Mai replaced the headphones back on her ears as she said, simply, "Police report."

Curious, he flipped the cover open and read the official script with big, capitalized letters stretching across the top.

POLICE REPORT; status: closed

On July 16th, 2001, at approximately 09:00 PM, Shibuya police officers were sent to the residence of Fujino Hikari to execute an arrest warrant issued earlier that day for suspected instances of company theft and embezzlement. After several unsuccessful attempts of contacting the owner, Fujino Hikari, blunt force was used to open the door. Upon entry, the premises were searched resulting in the discovery of a corpse in the middle room. First impressions of the scene indicate that the body was that of the owner, Fujino-san, who had passed several days previous from unknown causes. Due to the nature of the death, foul play was initially suspected, however the death was later ruled to be death by poison.

The more Naru read the more his stomach wound itself into a tight knot. He bit his tongue. "Did Fujino-san kill himself?"

"It certainly looks that way," Mai said, turning back around in her chair, "Though, it seems Yuriko-san, his exgirlfriend, is still under suspiscion of murder. I thought it might be relevant so I did some research on it last night."

"Last night?" Naru repeated, dumbfounded. "You came to investigate a house you knew might be the scene of a murder and you didn't think it was important until last night?"

"It didn't occur to me. All the hauntings in Britain are usually residual hauntings. You know, spirits who died in the Victorian era still wandering the halls in their nightgowns, that kind of thing. Not depressed blokes in their thirties with murderous girlfriends."

Naru cast her a disdainful look, but it was meant more for the room than for her. He wasn't sure how he felt about hanging around in a place where someone had died. On purpose or not.

Mai deflated. "Fujino Hikari was allegedly suffering from severe depression after losing his job. He was fired on grounds of suspicious activity. One of the news articles I read about it said the company he worked for was going to press charges and that his girlfriend left him when she found out. From what I gather, that means Yuriko-san was the last person to see him alive."

Naru quirked an eyebrow. "You learned all that from newspapers? That's not very informative. What ever happen to peer reviewed articles and fact over opinion?"

"You sound just like my Research Methods professor." She sighed and folded her arms over her stomach. "Unfortunately, there just isn't any other means of finding out the information we need. And anyway, I'm too hungry to think about it right now."

Her words had barely had time to process before Naru was suddenly reminded of his own growling stomach. He hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, having foregone dinner last night and not having this morning due to a certain someone breaking into their apartment. The feeling of being hungry didn't bother him as much as it probably should have. He was used to skipping meals; sometimes there just wasn't enough money. He steeled himself. That was why he took Mai's offer. They could use the extra income.

Mai straightened in her chair, turning to face her Chinese assistant. "Lin?" As if roused by her words, Lin-san suddenly stopped typing and pulled his headset off. He didn't voice any word of acknowledgment, but Mai didn't wait for one either. "Let's find a place to get some breakfast. I think we've done all we could with the recording for now. We can come back after and look at it with fresh eyes."

This seemed to be enough explanation for Lin-san who stood from his chair even before Mai had finished speaking. He closed the lid of his laptop with one hand and reached the other into his pocket, searching. Mai and Naru both slowly got to their feet; Mai smoothing down her skirt and Naru replacing the police file back on the desk beside the monitors. Lin, frowning, searched his other pocket.

"We're not too far from the office," Mai said, stretching, "We can stop by and grab some EMF detectors. I didn't think we needed them yesterday and we didn't have time to grab them today ーwhat's that look for?"

They both turned back to Lin-san who was scouring the desk. The deep, disgruntled glare etched into his face gave him the look of someone who had just lost something very important. All he said as he lifted the laptop was, "Keys."

"You didn't leave them in the van, did you?" Mai asked, earning herself perhaps the dirtiest glare Naru thought the older assistant could possibly have made without the use of both eyes. She raised her hand in surrender, "Just checking."

They searched behind and under all of the equipment, no matter how improbable it was to actually be there, before searching the boxes they carried them in but still there were no keys. Naru searched briefly in the hallway, finding nothing more than the same rogue nail that he was sure had always been there. They could have searched the whole apartment, but they were too tired and much too hungry.

Mai plopped back down in her seat with a whoosh. "I think I saw a convenience store on the way here." Mai said, glancing between them, eyes wide in mock innocence. "It shouldn't be that long of a walk."

.

.

Much to his dismay, it was eventually decided that Naru should be the one to go because, as Mai loved to point out, "that's the new guys job". And so it was with great annoyance (and the promise that he could get whatever it was he wanted on company expense) that he lugged the bag full of convenience store snacks and tray of tea up the elevator and back to the room. With no free hand, he kicked the door until Mai pulled it open and promptly thrust the bag into her empty arms.

She peeked into the heavy bag, lips turning up into an amused smile. "What did you buy?" She asked with a fair amount of incredulity. He really couldn't blame her; the bag had been quite heavy. It left deep red marks across his palm.

"Food."

She gave a short, bark of a laugh and lead the way to base. Together they unpacked the bags, laying the bags of chips, onigiri, cups of instant ramen, several assorted drinks, and a bento Naru had gotten especially for himself, on the free part of the desk. Mai picked up one of the rice balls, frowning. "What is this?" she asked incredulously.

"Onigiri," Naru said settling back in the floor with one of his own. He tried to wipe away the sweat still gathering over his forehead, "Don't like it? Next time you can walk three blocks in this heat."

"I didn't say that." She said, freeing the triangle of rice from its thin plastic covering. "I just… don't think I've ever eaten ー what flavor is this?"

Naru opened his own. "That one's tuna and mayonnaise, I think. This one is umeboshi."

Mai held the triangle skeptically. "I've never been a fan of fish."

Naru snorted. "You're in Japan." He reminded her. Seeing her face, and being utterly and completely reminded of Gene who loathed seafood, he stretched out his hand. "Would you like to switch?"

She looked as though he had offered her an explosive. "What's that?"

"Sour plum."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust, she didn't say another word by bit cautiously into the rice ball. On the other side of the desk, Lin-san was dutifully eating his own onigiri without complaint. Thought, Naru highly doubted the man would complain even if he didn't like the food.

It was nearing late afternoon by the time they were done. Lin-san returned to his laptop without another word, which wasn't all that surprising. Naru was shocked that he had even stopped to eat with them at all. Mai went back to replaying the audio ad nauseam, taking occasional notes, but she wasn't really listening. Naru was reluctant to return to doing pretty much nothing, and even though he disliked talking for long stretches of time, he made an effort to keep the conversation going. Surprisingly enough, he found Mai's life before JSPR quite interesting.

"Back home I was part of the tech team." She said, taking a long sip of apple tea, "Lin was on the data analysis team. I've never actually done field work until I got to Japan."

At this, Naru felt his jaw drop slightly and almost spilled tea over his lap. "Really?" He shouldn't have been surprised. He had thought it odd that someone who had been working for BSPR for years wouldn't be able to do something so simple as tell two different voices apart in a recording. "You mean you've neverー"

Mai shushed him.

He glared. Mai turned toward the monitors, short hair swinging as she gazed from screen to screen. "Did you hear that?"

"Obviously not." He said at the same time a soft thud permeated through the wall. He held his breath. Was that coming from the floor above? Or maybe it was coming from below?

Thud. Thud.

He followed Mai's gaze along all of the monitors. They were all perfectly normal; no static, noー A louder thud reverberated through his chest. He jerked away, the wall behind him still vibrating with the force of whatever hit it.

"It's coming from the room with the desk," Mai hissed as she and Lin-san both jumped to their feet, Mai looking excited and Lin-san rather disconcerted as they shot out of the room. Naru glared after them. Didn't people usually move away from danger? He thought, trying not to imagine what kind of object had to have hit the wall to make that kind of sound.

Still, he scrambled to follow after them. Lin-san was standing just outside the doorframe for the room next door, arm extended. Mai was inside the room, but only barely. Lin-san's hand was gripping her shoulder, forcing her back.

Carefully, as if approaching a wild animal, Naru sidled up beside them. He felt his jaw drop. The room had become a maelstrom of flittering paper. The big trash bags had been ripped open at the seams, its contents thrown into the air by some unseen force. A collection of tarnished silver picture frames were strewn across the floor, splintered and gleaming in the light. Naru saw the old lamp before the others. As if in slow motion, he watched it soar through the air toward Mai and Lin-san, who weren't looking at it, but at the ground were another picture frame lay broken. Naru opened his mouth to warn them, but the words wouldn't come. He reached out. The room was filled with the sound of shattered fiberglass as the lap was suddenly thrown sideways, colliding with the door frame so close to Mai that she flinched away from the scattering jagged pieces.

His hand trembled as he lowered it back down. His fingers felt as if he'd dipped them into ice water; his heart thrummed hard in his chest, a sudden irrevocable exhaustion sweeping over him. "What's... happening?" He asked, breathless.

Lin-san pulled Mai back, raising his free hand to his lips. "Don't be stupid, Mai." He said above the clamor.

But Mai wasn't listening. Her eyes wide, "Naru!"

He never saw the book coming. All he felt was the sting of pain across his cheek ー heard the flutter of paper, and with a final thud everything stopped.

Paper that had been thrown into the air was left to fall gently back down to the floor again. Naru lifted a cold, trembling hand to his cheek, hissing in pain. When he pulled them back, a thin line of blood coated his fingers.

"Are you okay?" Mai broke free of Lin-san's hold. She rushed the space to Naru, lifting her hand as if to touch him.

Naru leaned back as far as he could away from her, an uncomfortable heat creeping up his neck. He swallowed hard, "Are you?"

She shrugged, searching his face. "I think so."

He nodded, relieved when she dropped her hand.

Lin-san was glaring at him, visible eye narrowed to slits, eyebrows furrowed. He looked menacing. Uncomfortable under all the scrutiny, Naru deflected his gaze back to the room. It was a complete mess. No part of the floor was spared from the sudden onslaught and, with some concern, he saw that the flat part of what looked like a hammer had left the drywall broken where it hit the shared wall. "What was that?"

Mai was no longer beside him. He half turned in time to see her bent low just behind him, caressing the cover of the battered, thick red notebook. "A message."

.

.

He smoothed the skin of his cheek, still sore but at least it'd stopped bleeding. The cut was long and thin, probably made by one of the loose papers stuck inside the notebook as it flew past him, just barely missing hitting him full on in the face. He was lucky, really. From the sound it made when it hit the back wall, it could have broken his nose. But just like the lamp and Mai, it seemed to just miss him.

They didn't discuss what happened in the room and Mai wasted no time in delving into the notebook. She'd only barely refrained from opening it until she got back to base and had been sitting quietly at the desk ever since. The only time she'd moved was when she'd gotten the sudden idea to gather the papers from the room with the desk to add to the pile of evidence. Naru, bandaging his cut and frankly sick of sitting on the floor, had stacked boxes in a sort of makeshift stool and taken up the seat beside her. He ruffled through some of the loose papers, finding a late notice, a few fliers from festivals that were going to be happening around the city, and—

"This is an eviction notice," he said, staring blankly at the stark white paper. From what he could make out, it was dated sometime last year but some of the ink had been smudged. "Do you think Fujino-san was having trouble paying his rent?"

"It's possible," Mai said lightly, tilting the book toward him. "Naru-chan, what does this character mean?"

Her pale, slender finger was pointing to a particularly complex kanji made even harder by the scratchy handwriting. Naru bent sideways for the umpteenth time, absolutely refusing to touch the book. Even from his distance he could feel the immense feeling of loss and depression emanating from its frayed pages. He squinted, searching the radicals.

"It means 'hesitation'." He pulled away, rereading the whole sentence. "'Last night, I proposed to Yuriko' ー are you reading a dead man's diary?"

Mai's lip twitched in amusement. She leaned back in her chair. "Ah, that doesn't make any sense. Fujino-san proposes to her, she turns him down, leaves him, then a couple months later he's dead? If it were depression, you would think he wouldn't have waited so long... What if... what she really did kill him?"

"Who?" Naru asked, "Yuriko-san?"

"I don't know. She would have been the only one with a key. The door was locked according to the police report, remember?"

"I was under the impression you were a ghost hunter, not a detective." Naru tapped the desk beside the notebook, "How do you even know that was Fujino-san's journal and not someone else's?"

"It's basic deductive reasoning. The man who wrote this wrote about a woman named Yuriko-san. Due to rental records, we know that both a Yuriko-san and Fujino-san lived here for a period of three years before the events of the police report. The only owner after them is our client, whom hasnt yet been able to move in. Therefore, it's more than probable this notebook belonged to the late Fujino-san." They lapsed again into silence save for the gentle flipping of the thin, crumpled pages. Naru had just relented to checking temperatures again when Mai leaned over again, "Naruー"

"If we ever get out of here, Mai, I am buying you a kanji dictionary."

Mai pouted. "It's not my fault. I studied kanji before I came here but I've never seen some of these. His handwriting certainly isn't helping either."

"Your education is obviously lacking."

She leveled him with a tired glare. He hadn't noticed the light purple color bruising the underside of her dark eyes. Had she slept at all last night?

He relented, "That one means 'to be decapitated'. Waitー" He leaned in, squinting. Gene always said he needed reading glasses. "ーNo. He's saying he was fired from his job."

Mai pulled the book away, fingers tracing down the sloppy scrawl. "Fired? Why does that use the same kanji as 'decapitation'?"

"I don't know."

"Temperature drop detected by camera one." Lin-san announced abruptly, typing feverishly on his keyboard. "3-degrees."

Mai and Naru both turned to the camera focused on the kitchen. The late afternoon sun was still shining through the window, casting a golden glow through the room, but that was it. From what they could see through the small monitor, there was no activity.

"Anything else notable, Lin?" Mai asked. She pushed the chair sideways until she was side-by-side with Lin-san who didn't seem at all bothered by her proximity. She frowned at the screen, "Temperatures are returning to normal."

Naru jumped, suddenly flushed at the sudden feeling that something was crawling over his thigh. His hand flitted over his thigh – relief washed over him. He'd forgotten about his cell phone tucked away in his pocket. With a small glance back at Mai, he pulled it out just enough to see Gene's name scrolling across the caller I.D. Why is he calling now? What time was it over there?

"Are you sure it wasn't just a system malfunction?" Mai was asking.

He hastily stuffed the phone back in his pocket. "That could be. I thought the A/C was malfunctioning yesterday when I was in the kitchen."

Mai turned to face him. "Why didn't you tell me that yesterday?"

He shrugged, feeling the vibration of his phone come of a halt, paused for a moment, then start again. "I didn't think it was important."

"Lin, you said the Mel Meter recorded a temperature drop yesterday?"

He nodded.

"The A/C unit is completely dysfunctional. Ejiri-san said they had to cut all the wires and they hadn't gotten around to replacing them yet. That means... assuming that it's not a draft from one of the surrounding floors... that around this time yesterday the kitchen area fluctuated in temperature of at least 3-degrees."

The details of his run in with the old man's ghost were poised on the tip of Naru's tongue. But he bit them back. Was he really sure the whole thing happened? The camera hadn't captured any of the encounter, and there'd been no one else to see the man's ghost. How could he be certain he hadn't just hallucinated the whole thing? Anyway, what use was the information if it couldn't be verified? SPR was about science, he reminded himself. Not hearsay from an employee who didn't know an apparition from a sun glare.

"It's all got to do with this notebook..." Mai mumbled behind her hand. She was picking at the skin of her lips almost absentmindedly with one hand, stroking the creased page of said notebook with the other.

"How do you know?"

"I don't know." Mai sighed, "A feeling."

Naru eyed the notebook. The feelings of mingled depression and rage were nearly palpable this close to it. Mai had the book open to a page dated November of last year, the handwriting long and pointed, erratic almost.

Someone has been moving money from some big accounts in my department. There's going to be an inquiry at the office. I've got everyone available working on finding out who it was but—

Naru, very much against his instinct, gestured to the book. "Mai, can I?"

"Sure, sure," Mai pushed the book toward him, resting her forehead in her hands.

Naru gingerly, using the cuff of his sleeve as a buffer, turned the page. The same erratic handwriting was sloping down this page too, dating it only a week after the previous entry.

I've got documents of evidence but they won't listen to me. Takawa-san is guilty but no one wants to hear it! Just because he is our department supervisor—

He flipped the page again.

They think it's me, that I've been the one moving that money from our accounts. They say they have evidence but they refuse to show it to me. And this morning… this morning Takawa-san forced me to resign.

A sudden onslaught of fury burned inside his chest. He felt like tearing the notebook apart, throwing it across the room. He felt the urge to yell. To scream his innocence to anyone who turned their back on him. It wasn't him! He wasn't guilty! This was all his fault. Naru breathed hard thought his nose, forcing his fingers back from the page and feeling the essence of Fujino-san ebbing away. Somehow his shirt had slipped out from under one of his fingers.

All of a sudden, it made sense. "Is it possible…" he mumbled.

"Is what possible, Naru-chan?"

He jumped, nearly falling off his makeshift seat. He'd forgotten where he was. Mai was gazing at him expectantly. He looked away, back down at the notebook. "Sorry, no." he said quickly, "I'm just talking to myself."

"Go on. Say it. You never know what might be relevant."

"You don't think it's possible that Fujino-san did actually commit suicide?" He met Mai's gaze. "I mean; his girlfriend wouldn't marry him. Then he lost his job because of something that wasn't even his fault. Then his girlfriend left, and he was about to be kicked out of the apartment… you don't think that's a good enough reason? It certainly makes more sense than Yuriko-san coming back to kill him."

"It certainly has its merits. But it's not our job to tell the police they got it wrong, right? We're ghost hunters, not detectives, Naru-chan."

He gave her a long, hard look, "Don't use my own words against me."

"Don't make it so easy." They held each other's eyes for a moment longer than necessary before Mai sighed and looked away. "Maybe it's time to call Masa-chan. I'm not sure we can solve this case without a medium anymore." Mai pulled her cellphone from beside one of the monitors and flipped it open. She hit a few buttons, frowned pensively down at the screen and flipped the phone closed.

"Can I see your phone, Naru-chan?"

"Um. Yeah. Sure." He pulled his phone from his pocket once again, exiting out of the missed call message from Gene before handing it to her.

Mai typed in a number she'd apparently memorized and held the phone up to her ear. Naru could hear the tell-tale deep ring tone that came from the phone and then suddenly, it stopped. "Hello?" Mai said, then pulled the phone away from ear. She clicked a button. "It died."

Naru blanched taking it back from her grip. "It was fully charged a second ago."

Mai folded her arms across her chest, starting to pace the length of the desk as Naru and Lin-san watched her. "First my notes go missing. Then the keys. The activity in the desk room. Now both of our cellphones have dead batteries. There's a spirit here who's draining the energy from our electronics to steal things it must know we need. It's intelligent and yet has all the signs of a residual haunting..."

Naru pressed the power button again, half expecting the screen to light up and display the greeting message, but it remained resolutely black. With a loud crack, he flipped the phone shut. "What does this mean?"

Mai shook her head. "I don't know."

.~.

A/N: Very sorry for the amount of drabble in these two chapters. I find that the only way I can break myself out of writer's block is to let the character's do what they want and most times that's talking. A lot. Continuous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for being the most amazing beta's out there.

Read, relax, and review!

ELV


	11. Dear Diary

Chapter 10  
Dear Diary

"Damnit," he swore. He'd spent the last few minutes tearing through his overnight bag apart searching for his phone cord. Frustrated, he pushed the bag away from him, leaning back against the wall. "It's not here. I must have left it."

Mai didn't say anything for a long minute, watching him absently out of the corner of her eye. The revelation that something was desperately trying to get their attention by stealing their things had not spurred any sort of reaction from Lin-san, nor did it take Mai out of her spiraling bad mood. She'd just plopped down in her chair again and stared resolutely up at the monitors as if hoping they would give her some sort of answer.

When it became apparent they weren't, she yawned. "This is getting us nowhere." She said, stretching her arms high above her head. "What time is it?"

Naru closed his eyes. Without a phone there was he could have answered that question. For the first time he was regretting having never invested in a watch, at least then he would know exactly how much of his life he was wasting in this apartment.

Lin paused in his typing long enough to answer, "11:30."

"The first recorded activity happened at exactly 4 o'clock, right, Lin?" When Lin gave a low affirmative grunt, Mai went on, "It's possible that the same thing might happen again tonight. Naru-chan, we should have all the equipment ready just in case."

"Right," Naru said, but didn't make to move. He'd already checked all the cameras not even ten minutes ago out of pure boredom. There was no need to check on them again.

With his eyes closed he couldn't see the face Mai must have been making at him, but he heard her chair groan slightly as she turned toward him. "What are you doing?"

"Meditating."

"It looks an awful lot like sleeping."

Naru shrugged, "To each his own."

"Well, if you're not going to be useful, you might as well go to sleep."

He peeked an eye open. Mai wasn't looking at him but down at her interlocked fingers. "Do you really mean that?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure. I don't see why not." She cast a glance around the small, cluttered room. "There's not enough space in here to lie down comfortably though. You could sleep in the room next door."

He opened his other eye and leveled her with a tired glare, completely incensed. "You want me to sleep in the room where a ghost nearly hit you with a lamp and took my head off with a book?"

She waved a hand at him dismissively. "The room itself isn't privy to any sort of activity. It just so happened the object it was linked to was in there, now that it's in base with Lin I highly doubt there will be any more activity there." She said matter-of-factly, paused, then met his gaze. "Unless you would like to sleep in the base with Linー"

"No, I'm okay." He grabbed his night clothes still lying in a heap on the floor beside his bag and made to stand.

"Actually," Mai said, raising from her seat. "I could use some sleep, too. Lin, make sure we're up before 4 A.M."

Lin-san nodded and Mai strode from the room with a small duffle bag in tow. Stunned by her sudden realization that they would both be sleeping in the same room, Naru didn't make a fuss when Mai stole into the bathroom to change first. He waited quietly out in the hallway for her to finish and just when he thought he would give himself whiplash from how many times he'd thought he'd heard something creaking behind him, she came out.

Mai had apparently changed into her pajamas too ー a two-piece, rose colored ensemble that infuriated some deep, previously unknown part of him. He stared at the space of bare, pale skin below her throat where the night shirt came together in a V.

"What's wrong, Naru-chan?"

He could feel heat rising to his cheeks and looked away quickly, "N-nothing." He said then hastened into the bathroom before she could get a look at his face. He held his breath and leaned against the back wall until he could hear her soft footfalls leading away from the door.

What was that? he berated himself. What was so rousing about Mai in her pajama's? He pushed his palms to his eyes and saw again the soft pink against her pale skin in his mind's eye. This was going to be harder than he thought. Forcing the image away, he pulled off his clothes and changed into a pair of threadbare pajama pants and t-shirt. He was just going to have to keep reminding himself that Mai was his boss, that was all. Whatever it was he thought about her, she was his boss.

With that thought, he left the bathroom was more confidence than when he'd entered. However, it all melted away when he reached the doorway of the room they were to sleep in.

Even though he made a point to not look directly at her, Naru was particularly conscious of the small space between where Mai was settling under her blankets and where he ought to have been. There was no way he was going to sleep that close to Mai, hell, even Lin-san who would be keeping watch on the readouts in the next room all night would still be too close for comfort. Would it be possible for him to sleep in another room? He entertained the thought of sleeping on the floor in base but… No. Maybe he should stay up with Lin-san after all.

Or… maybe he could just move the desk? He was sure if he had something like that between himself and Mai's sleeping form, he might be able to rest peacefully. Or maybe it was wishful thinking. Well, he thought to himself, setting his sleeping mat down by the door, might as well try.

He could feel Mai's gaze follow him across the room. "What are you doing?"

"Moving the desk," he said simply. It was taking an unsurmountable amount of effort not to look back at Mai as ー he could see from the corner of his eye ー she brushed a hand through her short hair. But she didn't question him again.

The second his hands touched the cool, smooth wood of the desk, he felt it. A swirl of memory and emotion, pushing at the fringes of his wind, sweeping over him. Threatening to take over. A groan escaped him. He tried to pull his hands away ー the desk could stay ー but he couldn't move. His feet, his hands were rooted to the spot as his mind spun and he was pulled down, down, down.

.

.

Naru jerked up, head aching, back aching even more, and the sound of shattering glass still ringing in his ears. When had he fallen asleep? He rubbed the space between his chin and cheek, feeling the scratchy short hairs growing there. He'd forgotten to shave again. A notebook laid open to a page smothered almost completely with black ink ー ink that had been smeared in the center where his cheek had lain.

Annoyance spread through him as he thumbed the page, scanning the extent of the damage. He would have to rewrite the passage later. With a sigh he closed the notebook, it's hard red cover worn from years of handling. As he pushed the chair back, a light tinkling brought his attention to the floor and the shattered remains of a glass cup. He must have knocked it over in his sleep. Standing, he stepped over it and padded silently through the open sliding door to the kitchen, where he pulled another glass from the cupboard. Forgoing the ice, he poured a generous measure of gin and sipped it. The amber liquid ignited a line of fire down his throat, burning all the way down.

Besides his muffled sigh of discomfort, the rest of the small apartment was quiet. Yuriko must have left, then. He grimaced, clicked his tongue, and sipped again. They'd fought again. They always fought. He couldn't remember what exactly about this time but was sure it had something to do with the mounting bills or what she called his 'alcohol problem'. This time, he drained the glass. He didn't have a problem ー it was Yuriko who was the problem. Always nagging him.

It wasn't his fault. None of this was his fault. He was only a pawn in the hands of people who thought themselves superior; a scapegoat for their sloppy crimes. As if they would have blamed him if they'd just seen what he'd seen. It was a witch hunt ー didn't she understand that? After all he'd done for her; brought her from her parents' old home in the country, to this city. Built her an apartment with all her favored traditional Japanese decorations. Couldn't she see, he'd done it all, everything, for her. Did she even care?

He slammed the glass back down on the counter a little harder than he'd meant and poured himself another glass.

The scene changed.

"I told you to just take the stupid deal," Yuriko hissed, her long dark hair cascading over his shoulder as she spun to face him in the doorway. She crossed her arms over her chest, shivering. "Now look what you've done. It's freezing in here."

"And I told you," Naru adjusted his position in the same old wooden chair, elbow resting on the edge of the desk, trapping the rim of his empty glass with a lazy finger. "It will be fine. Ikeda-san is a man of his word ー he will be able to prove I'm innocent."

The room dissolved into silence. Naru fell back in the chair, just enough to reach the small drawer at the bottom of the desk. It opened with a muffled scraping sound as he withdrew that worn red notebook and set it on the desk. He already turned to the page where he'd left off and picked up his long-feathered quill before Yuriko spoke again.

"When, Hikari?" Her breath came in misted puffs. She shifted uncomfortably in the doorway, rubbing her arms for warmth. "We can't even afford heat."

"Soon."

The scene changed again.

"This is your fault!" Yuriko raged, pulling on her coat so hard it nearly ripped. "You lied to me. You told me everything would be fine. Now, look!"

Naru didn't say anything at first. He laid his head down on the hard desk, feeling the edge cutting into the skin of his forehead. He stared absently at the long-feathered quill laying abandoned in his lap. He couldn't write with all this racket. After a moment he said, weakly, "Everything is fine."

"Are you insane or just too thick to see what's going on right in front of you?" She licked her lips ー chapped from the intense cold ー striding across the room as she stuffed random object into a large bag. "We're losing the apartment, Hikari. We haven't been able to pay the rent in months and you ー you think everything is just fine?"

Now Naru lifted his head, reaching for a sip of his gin, but the glass was empty. He pursed his lips, "Ikeda-san is taking care of it."

"Yes, of course he is." Sarcasm dripped from words. Yuriko suddenly stopped in the middle of the room, the bag dangling from her shaking fists fit to burst with random knickknacks. "I'm leaving, Hikari."

Naru's chest heaved. He'd been expecting this. He thumbed the corner of his notebook; there weren't many pages left. He would have to get a new one soon. Would he be able to afford it?

Enraged by his silence, Yuriko strode across the room, seized the red notebook and hurled it straight across the room where it hit the back wall with a papery flutter. Naru was on his feet before he'd even realized what he was doing. He'd scurried to the place where the notebook fell, haphazardly trying to gather the pages that had torn free.

From behind him he heard Yuriko retreating to the doorway. When she spoke again, her voice was as cold as the winter air. "You can stay here and freeze to death with your gin and that damned notebook if that's what you want, but I can't. Not anymore."

The scene changed for the last time.

Naru was once again sitting slumped over the edge of the desk, head resting in one hand, tiny shiny brown capsule catching the light in the other. There were four others like it sprawled out over the desk. A steaming cup of tea sat in the corner of the desk, filling the room was a fresh peppery scent.

Naru regarded the capsule with dark curiosity, reading and rereading the four-digit serial code etched into one side, eyes dancing carefully over the small skull and cross bone symbol beside them. This was his... only option.

Ikeda-san had just called; it was over. There were coming to get him.

Prison was not made for guys like him. After months of nothing but drinking, he was unkempt, and unruly. He hadn't shaved in weeks; his hair was so long it threatened to poke him in the eye and the smell of alcohol seemed to radiate from him. He would be forced to spend years in a 4-by-8 cell for a crime he didn't even commit. What then? What would he do if he ever got out? No office would ever have him. His own girlfriend wouldn't have him. Naru spared a glance at the packet of official looking documents he'd thrown together days earlier. What if all his research was for nothing?

"This is your fault." Yuriko told him, slamming the door behind her. "You deal with it."

His life was over.

Naru pinched the capsule tighter between his fingers, pulling it apart with a soft pop, so that white powder splashed down onto the face of his red notebook. Staring down at the substance, he wondered briefly if it would hurt. He wasn't even sure what the damn thing was but he was sure it would do the job.

With a shaky sigh, he brushed the white powder into his hand and sprinkled it slowly into his tea cup, watching it dissolve in the dark liquid. He added the contents of two more of the capsules to the drink before he lifted the cup to his trembling lips and sipped. The taste was so bitter, so utterly disgusting that it took all his strength not to spit it out. He squeezed his eyes shut, swallowed, then too two more small sips. Would it be enough?

Wiping his mouth on his sleeve he set the cup aside. How much time did he have? Minutes? Hours? Part of him wish he knew, the other part was content not knowing. He must have had time for a few last words. A note, perhaps? Wasn't that what people did in times like these? Assert their innocence with their last, dying breath? With well-practiced precision, he opened the old red notebook to its last remaining blank page and smiled ruefully. At least he wouldn't have to worry about scraping the money together to buy a new one.

He picked up the quilled pen, twirled it lazily between his thumb and forefinger. Oh, how he would miss this. The feeling of the pen in his hand, scratching meaning into blank parchment. How much longer? Minutes, probably. Not enough time to write everything he wanted to say, not enough time to spill all his secrets, reveal all his regrets. Minutes. His traitorous heart beat harder in his chest, unknowingly racing toward its own death. Pumping the poison through his veins.

His eyes found the clock hung on the wall opposite. Not long now.

He pushed the chair out, sitting silently, trembling hand poised above the blank page, a drop of ink already threatening to blotch the parchment. What should he say?

What was befitting of his last words?

He spun the quill again and this time the ink did blotch the paper, spider webbing out. He wiped the sweat from his brow, squinting at the ink. The lines of the paper blurred and rotated before his eyes. Bile rose in his throat.

No, not yet. He wasn't ready yet. He had to write something ー anything. But his hands shook, his fingers not responding to his brain. How was it so that a book so filled with his thoughts would never know his last? The pen fell with a muffled thud. His hand convulsed, twitching and writhing. Not yet.

Next was his chest. It felt as if fire had ignited on his veins. His lungs seized ー he couldn't breathe. Tears streamed from his eyes as the world slipped out from under him and next moment he was lying curled in the ground. This was not what he thought it would be. He gulped down a breath, gasping around the bile tearing apart his nose and throat. But it was too late. His heart thundered to a halt and the chiming of the clock announcing the four o'clock hour fell on deaf ears.

.

.

Tears dropped down, staining the wood of the desk.

"Naru?"

Mai's voice broke through his muggy thoughts, rooting him back firmly in his own head. He was no stranger to psychometric visions, but he'd never been very good at coming back out of them again. He swallowed hard, still feeling the burn of the poisoned tea down his throat. His stomach churned, "Sorry," he choked out.

Mai stepped beside him, arm reaching out as if to console him. She peered into his face, lips thin with worry. "Are… you crying?"

"What?" As he said it he felt the lingering wetness of tears that had slid down, over his cheeks. "Oh ー no. I ー I stubbed my toe on the corner." He whipped the tears away with a shrug of his shoulder as he leaned away from the desk, pretending to nurse his injury. His eyes were drawn back to the desk feeling as if he were missing something. He found the very last and smallest of the drawers; the same one Fujino-san kept his notebook in. That… couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

He reached for it.

"Naru!" Mai seized the hem of his sleeve, tugging him so fiercely he stumbled sideways, off-balance.

"Whatー" he hissed, but he already knew. An inexplicable draft was trickling down his back, icy and undoubtedly familiar. The lights overhead flickered, bathing them in swaths of darkness. A low, trembling rumble pressed against his ears as if he'd been thrust into a crowd of angry people. "Mai," his voice caught in his throat. He knew he was speaking but he couldn't hear his own voice above the din of the invisible crowd. He righted himself slowly, leaning in as close to Mai as he dared. "It's him."

His declaration was punctuated by the appearance of a wavering, pale figure. Naru swallowed hard, fighting the impulse to press his palms to his ears. His heart pounded hard in his chest. The figures wrinkled sweater-vest was hazy, as if appearing through a veil of water. His pallid, greying face scowled down at them, mute.

Mai was staring, open mouthed. It was such a look of absolute shock that Naru was forced to wonder if Mai had ever actually seen a ghost before. But then she blinked and took a half step toward the ghost. "Hikari-san?"

Naru caught hold of her wrist. Part of him felt the need to correct her, but that same icy feeling from before was ebbing into his fingertips, making Mai's skin burn like fire where they touched. Fighting the very present need to let go, he pulled her back toward him, hissing, "Mai, don't."

She didn't give any indication that she'd heard him, but then again, he wasn't sure that she could have. The disembodied voices were relentless, heckling them just beyond understanding. But Mai's voice rang loud and clear over the jumble of voices as she said, "Did someone kill you, Hikari-san?"

Fujino-san glared at the pair of them, his eyes a shining, golden brown. Naru felt a wave of dizziness followed closely by a pang of dread in the pit of his stomach. Was it him, or was the ghost becoming more solid? He clenched his jaw, mastering himself as the ghost of Fujino Hikari nodded. "They killed me."

"They?" Mai asked, innocently. "More than one person?"

"I think he means the company." Naru breathed in her ear. It was the only way she could have possibly heard him. "He blames the company for his death."

Mai searched his face curiously, mouth opening and closing as if on the verge of asking him something but thought better of it. "Fujino-san," she said, finally, "it… really wasn't you who stole from the company, was it?"

The ghost seethed, narrowed eyes glowering furiously down at Mai. Naru stepped sideways, not taking his eyes off the very substantial figure until he was half blocking Mai from view. He didn't see why he should let a ghost harm Mai, but really, he couldn't understand why he was the putting himself in danger.

...Where was Lin-san?

"Lin-san!" Naru yelled toward the open door. The chatter of the invisible voices swelled to drown out the sound of his voice.

"It wasn't me!" Fujino-san screeched, surging forward.

He looked so real, so solid that Naru flinched away from him, pulling Mai back with him. "Lin-san, help!"

The ghost was so close now they could see his whole mouth shone silver. It coated his teeth as he barred then in barely restrained fury, spilling over his lips and down his chin. "Tell them the truth."

Naru pulled Mai back again, her skin nearly searing his, but his hips hit the edge of the desk. There was nowhere else to go. They were trapped and he was one misplaced finger away from a repeat of that psychometric vision. He curled his fingers into a tight fist.

Mai showed no sign of fear but a longing to understand. "We know it wasn't you." She said, pleadingly, "but what can we do—"

"It is the notebook," he breathed. He seized the notebook from Mai's limp hand. "The proof — the proof is in here, isn't it?"

Fujino-san's eyes flicked down to the notebook. "…in there." He raised a pale finger and a fierce lash of wind grazed the back of Naru's hand. He cried out in surprise, retracting his hand back to his chest, but there was no pain. The force had only been enough to knock the notebook from his grasp — It clattered to the floor, splayed open to some page black with ink and covered in overlapping tea stains.

"Here?" Mai bent slowly, tugging Naru's arm as she did. He didn't take his eyes off the ghost as she righted herself, notebook in hand. She didn't spare a glance up again as she bowed her head over the open page, reading, "'January 4th, 2,000 transferred to account number 1204017. February 1st, 4,000 transferred' — this is it, Naru. There's a whole list of money transfers here."

"Is that what you wanted?" Naru asked. Fujino-san's face had smoothed over, the anger gone from his eyes.

He almost looked… relieved. "Show them."

Mai jerked her head up, eyes sparkling with determination. She hugged the notebook to her chest, but made no move to speak. "We will, Hikari-san. I promise."

Fujino-san closed his eyes, mouth falling open in a low sigh. Naru couldn't help but notice the silver that had coated his lips and teeth was gone. He blinked, and Fujino-san was gone.

Naru scoured the room, "Where did he go?"

"He's gone, Naru-chan." Mai said lightly. She breathed a small sigh, smiling. "He's moved on."

"Moved on?" He repeated. The warmth had begun to seep slowly back into the tips of his fingers. "How can you be sure?"

"We will have to do some minor tests but… I have no doubts. Hikari-san's spirit has moved on. It seems all he wanted was someone to know the truth. To get some sort of justice for himself." She glanced down at his hand still holding her wrist as if noticing it for the first time. "You're freezing."

He let go with a fervor that sent a flutter of nausea through him. His knees buckled. Mai's rose-colored shorts flashed at the edge of his vision, the feel of her arms wrapping loosely around his forearm heralding the crack of his knees against the barren floor.

Ouch.

Mai called his name again, sinking to her knees beside him. "Are you all right?"

"Perfect," he whispered, though, from the way his head pounded he may have just thought it. He meant peeked up at her from beneath his overgrown bangs but found his gaze drawn back to the desk at his side. He was almost at eyelevel now with the lowest, smallest desk drawer, an inexplicable feeling welling in his chest. This time when he reached for it, Mai didn't stop him.

It opened with that same muffled scraping sound and for a long, confused second, Naru thought he was back in the psychometric vision, staring down at that worn, red notebook. However, the feeling was shattered when Mai reached passed him and pulled the obviously blue notebook from the drawer.

"My notebook," she said, tired, but relieved. She blinked down at Naru who was still bent double, peering into the drawer. "How did you know it was there?"

"I didn't," he murmured quietly. I guessed, he finished to himself, reaching into the small space to pull out a jingling array of silver keys.

.

.

Naru spent the entirely of the ride back to base with his head between his knees, breathing slowly out through his nose. It'd taken a lot less time to take down all the equipment with Mai helping, especially since they were leaving some of their devices behind to be sure that there was no more spiritual activity, but every second felt like an eternity. It felt as if every muscle in his body had disintegrated, leaving his arms and legs shaking beneath the weight of the boxes he was forced to carry. They couldn't have been done soon enough. As soon as he'd sat down in the seat, Mai scribbling happily in her notebook beside him, he'd bent double, using what remained of his strength to keep himself from vomiting.

After finding all the missing objects, Mai and Naru had burst back into base, both still in their pajamas. Lin's face remained impassive as Mai recounted the last five minutes, until she got to the part where Fujino-san had been the most threatening.

"I called for you," Naru said, hoarsely.

Lin-san's eyebrows raised ever so slightly. "You did?"

Naru seethed, exhaustion getting the better of him. "Twice."

"I guess he didn't hear you, Naru-chan." Mai explained lightly, padding his shoulder as if consoling a tantruming child. "It was really hard to hear anything other than the voices." She said, to which Lin-san's eyebrows raised even further and Mai launched into the rest of the story.

Back in the van, Naru clenched his fists in his hair, fighting back another wave of queasiness. What was taking them so long? He thought he might pass out before Mai and Lin-san returned from their last trip making sure all the leftover equipment could function on its own. What would they do then, if they found him here, slumped against the door? He snorted, immediately regretting it as bile burned his throat. Mai would probably let him fall out.

Thankfully, he was still fully conscious two minutes later when the duo returned and slid out to allow Mai to take the middle seat. He didn't fancy sitting next to Lin-san even if it was a short journey. Mai had assured him that he could return to his apartment tonight, but expected him to be at the office in the morning. Too sick to complain, he acquiesced and a few minutes later they were pulling up to his complex.

He slinked out of the van, letting his overnight bag dangle loosely from one hand. "Good night—" he started but then Mai slid out behind him smiling tentatively.

"I'll walk you up the stairs."

"That isn't necessary," he said quickly. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of the other morning; the mere memory of it was threatening to bring on a completely different wave of emotion. "I can make it myself—"

Mai didn't let him finish. She pulled the bag out from his grasp and strung it over her shoulder, marching towards the staircase.

They walked in silence, Mai leading, all the way to the second-floor landing where she stopped to watch him climb the last few stairs. "How did you know?"

He breathed deep through his nose, desperate to keep the world from slipping out from under him as it was threatening. "…Know what?"

"About Hikari-san." She said, "It was like you knew exactly what to say."

Naru shrugged, taking back the bag and crossing the last few feet to his front door alone. He didn't want to think about it, but the lingering taste of gin and poison was still burning the back of his throat. "It was just… A feeling."

Mai laughed, a high ringing sound not unlike a bell. A knowing smile stretched her lips as she gave a small wave and started back down the stairs. "Good night, Naru-chan!"

.

.

The next morning was the hardest he had had in a long time. The simple act of pushing the covers off him was a feat in and of itself let alone showering. His whole body felt as if he'd been through a grinder then clumsily rebuilt by someone with a vague understanding of human function. But at least he wasn't feeling nauseous anymore.

The walk from the train station to the SPR office building was the worst part by far. Not only did he have to remember ambiguous set of directions relayed to him days ago, but he also had to go out of his way to avoid the small cluster of girls ogling him from the other side of the train.

Eventually though, he'd found the building, coaxed his legs to climb the stairs to the top and pushed open the door labeled SPR, Society for Psychical Research. A bell overhead announced his arrival.

"Hey, kid." A low, man's voice called from the sitting area, a voice that was too jovial to be Lin-san. Naru had barely taken in the wide space lined with bookcases and the desk by the entryway when his attention was drawn to black leather chairs and couches arrayed in a square in the center of the room.

Mai was standing just behind the furthest chair. She turned to smile at him, dressed in the same monochromatic ensemble she'd worn when they first met. "Good morning, Naru-chan. I take it you didn't sleep well?"

To be honest, he had slept better than he had in a long time; the bruises under his eyes were just a side effect of the other aches he was currently experiencing. He didn't answer, not because he didn't want to, but because he'd just realized just who exactly had called him 'kid'.

Mai gave a wide gesture to the man reclining in the client's armchair with long blond hair held back in a low ponytail and a cocky grin, "Naru-chan, you remember Takigawa-sanー"

"From the case at my school." Naru finished for her, leveling the older monk character with a glare. "I remember."

Takigawa-san smiled ruefully, "I see the ghosts haven't scared you off yet."

"I see you still haven't cut your hair yet." Naru snapped back.

Unperturbed by the palpable waves of annoyance emanating from her assistant, Mai gestured to the two occupants on the long couch. "And John-kun and Masako-chan, too." Behind her hand he recognized the bright-eyed foreigner and Mai's friend, the raven-haired medium, whom bowed their heads in turn.

Naru spared a fleeting thought for her choice of dress ー Hara-san was still sporting her flowery kimono that made her look almost doll-like ー but inclined his head to each respectfully. "Good afternoon."

Hara-san lifted a hand to hide her pink cheeks. "Hello again, Shibuya-san."

"Hi," John intoned.

Nau stepped carefully out of his shoes, saying, more out of escaping the awkward tension then actual concern, "Where's Lin-san?"

"He volunteered to take the notebook and our case report he to the police. He will be back later."

Silently, Naru congratulated the older assistant on the well thought out excuse. Lin-san must have known Mai would be inviting the other psychics to the office and made the excuse to leave. Lucky bastard.

"Police?" Takigawa-san asked, pitching an eyebrow. "Rough case?"

"No," Naru replied through his teeth.

"A bit." Mai said, standing and smoothing her skirt. "But first, would everyone like some tea?"

Hara-san nodded, folding her hands delicately in her lap. "Yes, thank you, Mai-chan."

"Tea would be appreciated," John-san said with a modest smile.

Naru followed quickly after her, shedding his jacket to drape over the edge of the couch. She was not about to leave him alone with these idiots. "I'll help."

"Actually," Takigawa-san wagged a finger at him as he passed, "I'd prefer iced coffee. If you've got it."

Naru threw a glare over his shoulder. "This is an office, not a café. If you want coffee go downstairs."

The kitchenette was a very small space, separated from the rest of the office by the wall. The space had obviously never been meant to accommodate more than one person at a time as there was barely enough room for Naru and Mai to move around without touching. Mai had already taken the kettle from the counter and filled it with water by the time Naru entered, leaning beside the microwave.

"Why are they here?" He said with as much apathetic malice as he could. Unfortunately, his want to sound indifferent and his badly concealed contempt toward the aforementioned they made it sound more like he was merely disappointed.

Mai offered an innocent look, brown eyes crinkling a bit at the edges. "I invited them."

"I'd worked that part out for myself, thanks." he said.

He glanced sideways at her, watching. Even though he hadn't meant to be funny, he had expected her to laugh. She was just weird that way, finding humor in his seriousness. He would even go as far as to say it was something he'd come to expect and even admire about her. Now, however, she didn't laugh. She didn't even crack a smile. Instead, she brought several teacups down from the cabinet and arranged them on a large carrying tray, eyebrows drawing slowly together. Naru studied her new expression, the one he associated with 'researcher Mai'.

"After the last case," she said slowly, not looking at him, "I think it would be wise to have a spiritualist or two at hand. In England, we usually have a team of spiritualists at any one time but... I thought..." she trailed off.

Naru refrained from rubbing the still aching cut across his cheek. He knew what she meant, though he thought there may be a different way of going about asking for help. He certainly didn't want to be forced to spend time with people who questioned their ability to handle things simply based on their age.

"I'd underestimated Japan," Mai went on, "but I won't be making that mistake again. Takigawa-san is a strong Buddhist monk, John-kun is an accomplished exorcist, and Masa-chan has more than proved herself as a medium. All together I think they would make JSPR a well-versed team."

Naru, who thought none of them had proved useful to them at all, threw his boss a mischievous grin, raising an eyebrow. "What happened to Matsuzaki-san?"

Mai puffed out her lip, pausing in her efforts of weighting out tea leaves. The look she was giving him was a mixture of betrayal and utter contempt. "Why?" she said, accusingly, "Were you looking forward to confessing to her?"

"Confess?" If he hadn't been afraid of bashing into the mini fridge, Naru would have taken a step back in shock and disgust. "To thatー" he stopped himself, searching for the right word. Somehow, calling her a hag as he'd been about to do just didn't feel right. She couldn't have been much older than him, anyway.

"Right." She said and to his relief, Mai's grin was back; though, he thought it had become rather fixed as she returned to shaking a spoonful of black leaves into the steeper. "I guess a girl like Masa-chan is more your style?"

It took a long minute for her words to register. A moment that was marred by the high, calming chime of the front door. Mai didn't give him a chance to collect himself. She abandoned the tea tray, fixed a welcoming smile on her lips, and crossed the space of the small kitchenette in two strides. "Hello, how can we help...you..."

Naru watched her smile falter, sliding slowly down her face as she turned quickly to look at him over her shoulder than back to the strange at the door. The whole office seemed to have fallen under a sudden hush.

"Um, hello." Naru froze, hand poised halfway to his teacup. That voice ー it couldn't be ー "Is Kazuya here?"

Mai's gaze seemed to thaw him. Her brown eyes were as round as saucers, flicking back and forth between him and the stranger as if she were watching a tennis match. "...Na...ru?"

Naru sprinted the length of the small kitchen, hearing his brother's melodious chuckle as he rounded the corner.

"Oh, no. I'mー"

"Gene?"

A/N: Second case solved! This was the first out of two planned original cases, so I would really like your guys' feedback on what you liked and what you didn't so that I can try and do better with the next ones. A continuous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and for being the most amazing beta out there.

Thank you all so much for your feedback! I've made this chapter extra long in case my updates become even more sporadic over the next couple of months while I focus on finishing my degree, but hopefully it won't be that long. There is a lot of things I can't wait to write about. Anyway, see you all in the next chapter.

Read, relax, and review!

ELV


	12. Homecoming

Chapter 11  
Homecoming

"Um, hello," — Naru froze, hand poised halfway to his teacup. That voice — it couldn't be — "Is Kazuya here?"

Mai's gaze seemed to thaw him. Her brown eyes were as round as saucers, flicking back and forth between him and the stranger as if she were watching a tennis match. "...Na...ru?"

"Oh, no. I'mー"

Naru jerked in surprise, elbow knocking into the boiling tea kettle as it hit the counter with a loud clang. Water sloshed out, soaking through his shirt. He peeled the fabric back, hissing as it burned his skin. He set the kettle into the sink, crossing the short distance to Mai who looked at him as if he had two heads.

Around the corner, he caught a glimpse of Gene's shaggy black hair as he stood from a slight bow. His skin was pallid and beneath his eyes were the smudges of sleeplessness that made him look more like the ghost of his twin. As Gene straightened, his dark eyes found Naru. They raked over him, pausing at his wet shirt before finding the healing scab on his cheek. After a moment, a relieved smile broke over his face. "I was hoping I'd find you here."

"Gene? Why aren't you in England?" Naru felt awkward standing there with his shirt still pinched between his fingers, damp with dirty leaf water. A heat crept up his neck as he imagined he could feel the others raking their eyes over them in turn, searching for the difference. "You aren't supposed to be here until Sunday."

Gene, used to his twins' lack of tact, simply grinned, arms outstretched. "Yet here I am."

"U-um," Mai stammered, rising from her seat. She looked between the two with large doe eyes before settling on the newcomer.

"Mai," Naru seethed. Gene's fading smile felt like base treachery. "This is my older brother, Yuujin."

Gene raised a hand in greeting to the room. "Please call me Gene."

"Takigawa Houshou," the monk said from his place on the love seat. He didn't bother to hide his curiosity as he looked from one twin to the other. "So, there's two of you? Well, things are certainly going to be interesting."

Gene gave a tentative half smile while Naru tried to squeeze the water from his shirt. It was no use and only succeeded in wrinkling the fabric. On the other end of the couch, Hara-san was staring intently down at her hands folded in her lap. Her short black hair had fallen forward, hiding her face, but she didn't need an introduction. Just as Naru had, Gene recognized her flower patterned purple kimono, his eyes widening by a fraction. Naru watched him watching her, Mai's voice in his head. I guess girls like Masa-chan are more your type.

She was half right.

"Pleased to meet you, Gene-san." Mai bowed, breaking the awkward tension with a smile firm on her lips. "I'm Taniyama Mai."

"I was wondering when I'd finally get to meet you," Gene chuckled. "I hope my little brother hasn't caused you too much trouble."

"Now that you mention it," Mai looked sideways at Naru who glared back, affronted, "he complains a lot, but he's not entirely useless."

Naru gave up on his shirt and crossed his arms. "Who are you calling useless?"

"I said not entirely useless, weren't you listening?"

Gene stifled a yawn behind his hand.

"You just came from England?" John asked. He was so quiet, Naru had nearly forgotten he was there in the first place. "You must be very tired."

"Ah," Gene said, "that is an understatement." He eyed the priest's curly blond hair and bright blue eyes. "Are you from England?"

John waved a hand, "Oh no. I'm from Australia."

"Gene-san, we were just making tea. Would you like some?"

"Oh, no really, we should be going. If we're not careful, we will miss the last train."

Naru glanced up at the clock on the back wall. "Is it that late already?"

Gene bowed to the room. "I'm sorry again for the interruption."

"Don't worry about it. Take care,"

Naru slid back into his jacket that was resting on the back of the couch, murmuring so that Mai could hear, "I will be back tomorrow after school."

"Of course."

After bidding goodbye to the others, the twins headed for the door, Naru shivering slightly as he held the door open for his brother. It was unexpectedly cold for April.

As he slipped passed, Gene eyed the small scabbed line over his cheek and scowled. "What happened to your face?"

Naru let the door fall closed behind him, imagining he heard Mai's faint giggle as he turned to the stairs. He said, "Paper cut."

"On your face?"

"That's not such an odd place," Naru mused, barely audible above the din of the growing crowd. He lead them down the ground floor, keeping half an eye on his brother as they made their way toward the city's center.

Naru didn't exactly enjoy the walk from the second floor Dogenzaka office to the overpopulated Shibuya station, but the next closest station was a half-hour walk to Shinsen and that was a non-option. The bright lights and crowds of people were normally not so bad if he left early enough to head off the thriving nightlife, but not tonight. He'd stayed at the office longer than usual and now they were paying for it as they passed the dazzling lights of the cinema. Gene lagged a step behind, distracted by the phone buzzing in his palm.

He could have imagined it, but he could have sworn Gene glared at the phone before stowing it back in his pocket. As they walked, Naru could feel Gene's gaze on him, scrutinizing the thin layer of dust that has clung to clothes.

"What?"

Gene pulled a face, eyebrows knitting together. "You're sure you're alright?"

"Why?"

After spending more than a few weeks without much company at all, it was odd to glance over his shoulder and find Gene there at his heels. It was a feeling of both anxiety and relief as it sank in that the apartment was going to be crowded once again, but at least he wouldn't have to do his own washing anymore.

Gene considered him for another few steps before shaking his unkempt head. It seemed the 12-hour flight did nothing for his bedhead. "Nothing, nevermind."

When they finally made it to the station, Naru had to endure Gene's panicked fit as he ravaged his pockets to find his train pass only to realize it was in his hand the whole time. With a sigh of relief, they both descended to the underground platform.

Naru glanced up at the dispatch board as they passed, "The next train is at 9 o'clock."

Gene checked the time on the glowing screen of his cell phone. "It's only a few minutes."

Naru leaned back against one of the pillars as they waited, a small crowd gathering on either side of them. Gene shifted from side to side beside him, fumbling with his phone as it vibrated again. This time Naru couldn't mistake the glare as he flipped up the screen and pushed a button before flipping it closed again.

Naru looked away, watching the board change to display newer train arrivals as he said, "It's okay. You can take it."

"No, it can wait." Gene said, "It's fine."

But, Naru thought, you don't really believe that. With his brother thousands of miles away, the connection between them had been little more than occasional tweaks and instances of feeling. Now, standing barely feet from each other, it seemed the distance may have over-extended the ability of the bond/connection. It buzzed between them; there, but just barely. Just enough to transmute vague feelings of irritation/ill will. Knowing that it could have been leftover feelings from the case, Naru still eyed his brother with suspicion. Gene was biting his lip, fidgeting with the hem of his pockets as his eyes were unfocused, centered on something in the distance.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Gene dropped his hands, resorting to cracking them at the knuckle instead. "What do you mean?"

Their connection wasn't forged by eye contact, but as their similar blue-grey shades met, a name surfaced. Kaori. It took a moment for the name to connect to the face of a rather plain girl Naru had seen hanging around Gene and his friends at school.

"Oh," Naru said automatically, the pieces falling together. "You broke up."

"Stay out of my head." Gene seethed.

"What happened?"

Gene realized he wasn't going worm his way out of an explanation. He relinquished his lips, having accidentally made himself bleed. He said, "She was cheating on me. With some senior — Tagumi-kun or something."

Naru pitched an eyebrow, "Didn't you just fly in? How did you find out?"

"When I saw you weren't home I went to the school to see if you were still there and I saw them."

Naru caught the briefest of images of a girl with long, straight black hair pressed up against an unfamiliar, tall tanned boy. He scrunched his nose, dismissing the image from his head. The connection seemed to be healing much quicker than neither he'd wanted nor expected. In only a few minutes they exchanged not only feelings but images — thoughts. It begged the thought, if they'd been away any longer, would the connection have broken beyond repair? He supposed it didn't matter.

He also supposed he should say sorry or something, but the words wouldn't have been sincere. Naru had never known why they were together in the first place and Gene wouldn't want his pity anyway.

"This is about you not me," Gene said, cuffing Naru on the shoulder with his phone, "Don't you ever ignore my calls ever again or I swear."

An empty threat. Naru rubbed his shoulder as a rush of air hit them from the end of the tunnel. The train had arrived. "The ghost did it."

.

.

Naru welcomed the warmth of the apartment on his icy fingers. The walk from the train station wasn't a long one, but it was long enough for him to appreciate the convenience of being driven as he tried to block the wind from freezing his damp shirt to his chest. Naru shed his coat as soon as Gene locked the door behind them and stepped out of his shoes.

"Tadaima..."

Gene was standing in the entryway, eyes sliding over the orderly interior of the small apartment. His face was empty of any emotion in the same way that Naru's would, except where it looked menacing on him, it only succeeded in making the older twin look dazed. It'd been weeks since Gene had lived in the small apartment and Naru had no doubt his brother was already missing the English lifestyle he'd been living until then.

Naru hung his jacket in the small closet. "Welcome home," he said.

His voice seemed to shake his brother out of whatever trance he'd been in. Gene blinked as if really seeing him for the first time. "Why are you wet?"

Naru followed his gaze down to his stained midriff. The tea had dyed the fabric a dull, translucent brown that stuck to his skin. With a huff, he stomped to the small bedroom, peeling the cold and sticky shirt off and tossing it into the corner of the room with the other dirty laundry. Reaching for a clean t-shirt, he said, "Don't ask."

Gene chuckled but didn't follow him in. He hovered in the entryway, his hands in his jacket pockets and making no move to take it off.

Naru pulled on the threadbare shirt, wishing he had a sweatshirt to wear instead. Despite the warmth of the apartment it was still colder than he would have liked, but they couldn't turn the heat up anymore. "I could use some tea." He mumbled, turning back to Gene. "What's wrong?"

Gene didn't answer. He glanced down, palming his cell phone again, making an effort to keep his face blank. "I have to go. I promised to meet someone."

"You're leaving?"

"I'll be back later." Gene said, not looking up. He stepped back toward the door, lifting the phone to his ear. "Don't wait up," he called over his shoulder.

Naru stared incredulously as the door closed behind him. "What was the point?" It all seemed quite senseless for his brother to go through the trouble of finding him only to leave him once they were home. He thought of rushing out the door and telling Gene that — surely he hadn't gone far yet — but putting himself back in the cold wasn't worth it. He could deal with it later, when they could argue over a hot cup of tea instead of the cold apartment stairway.

He quite intended to stay up until Gene returned, but after a few hours, he'd finished studying for his upcoming exams and the tea was beginning to make him sleepy. Unwilling to admit he was giving up, he told himself he had class in the morning and he could talk to Gene then. Except, it seemed Gene wasn't planning on attending school the next morning.

Awoken by his alarm, Naru wasn't surprised to find himself alone in the small bedroom. He pulled on his uniform and ran a hand through his hair to tame his bedhead. When he passed the kitchen to brush his teeth, he saw his brother leaning on his elbow at the table, eyes closed and still wearing his clothes from yesterday. The room smelled like fresh coffee that he suspected must have been in the mug by Gene's arm.

Gene didn't wake as Naru went about the daily routine he'd become accustomed to in his brother's absence. In fact, he barely stirred as Naru set his bowl of cereal on the wood with a loud clank. Fortunately, a swift kick to the shin from the other end of the table woke Gene with a jolt. Naru didn't feel too bad as he continued with his breakfast and Gene wiped the drool from his chin with the back of his hand.

"Morning,"

"G'mornin…" the elder twin stretched in his chair, joints cracking. "What time is it?"

"Nearly eight," Naru said, "I waited for you last night. When did you get in?"

Gene frowned in a sleepy sort of way and leaned on his arms like a pillow. "I told you not to."

Naru finished his cereal. "You should get dressed. We have to leave soon."

"Leave?" Gene mumbled into his arm. "I don't work until 10…"

"You're not going to class?"

Naru waited for his answer as Gene slowly lifted his head and attempted to rub the sleep from his eyes. "I'm on leave until next week," he said as if it were all the explanation he needed.

Naru stood and rinsed his bowl in the sink. "Where did you go last night?

The question seemed to clear the fog on Gene's expression. He pushed away from the table and saddled up beside his brother to clean his coffee mug. This time it was his turn to say, "Don't ask."

.

.

The train ride from school to the heart of Shibuya wasn't nearly as cold as it had been the night before. The sun had done its best to take the edge off the wind and it seemed the station workers had finally turned on the heat, so it was a rather comfortable ride.

Mai greeted him with a guilty smile when he finally made it to the office. It looked as if he had interrupted a conversation between her and Lin-san as he shrugged out of his jacket and loosened his school tie. Mai offered him tea and biscuits as Lin-san sat down at the desk settled in front of the kitchenette, busying himself with his familiar laptop.

"This is your desk," Mai said, tapping the smooth wood of the desk by the door. As Naru pulled out his chair he cast a jealous look over to Lin-san. Why was he being delegated to the desk that caught the chilly air whenever the door was opened?

No sooner had he strung his bag across the chair and settled down than Mai dumped a thick pile of folders on the desk. They were not unlike the folder she had given him at the beginning of the last case, except all marked with a different kanji. He shuffled through them. "What am I supposed to do with these?"

"Mainly sorting," Mai said, heading back toward her office. She mumbled something to Lin-san as she passed him and he nodded. Naru tried not to notice the immediate awkwardness that settled over the pair of them when Mai was out of view. Lin-san kept his attention on his work and Naru was only too happy to reciprocate.

Since then, he'd spent his time working through the files Mai left on his desk and filling out the necessary fields. It was boring and a bit tedious but interesting to see the progression of the cases before the one at his school. An older couple who were adamant the flickering lights in their housing block were the work of a spirit and not old electrical lines. A woman who was sure her recent string of bad luck was due to a family curse and not at all just a bad personality.

Naru was beginning to question Mai's ability to point out a fraud. Why take such cases when their causes were nothing short of ordinary? Counting the case at the school and the most recent one for Ejiri-san, only two of the eight cases turned out to be supernatural in nature. But of course, despite the circumstances, Lin-san's reports were straightforward and meticulously detailed. Naru was halfway through a rather interesting case of a family of five feeling as if someone were watching them, that turned out to be carbon monoxide poisoning, when he was distracted by the arrival of Hara-san.

She smiled when he looked up, a small thing, barely a quirk of the lips as she quickly hid it behind her sleeve. He was immediately reminded of her shy reception the previous night. "Hello, Shibuya-san."

"Hara-san," Naru inclined his head.

She looked quickly away. "I apologize for my lateness, has the client arrived yet?"

"Client?"

"Yes, Mai mentioned she would like my opinion on a potential client."

Naru frowned. Mai hadn't said anything about a possible case. "We don't have any—"

He was interrupted by the chiming of the door. "Excuse me," a soft voice called.

Naru stood as a woman with bushy brown hair came into view. Her pinched expression made her look older than she was.

She looked skeptically between Hara-san, dressed in her token floral kimono, and him still in his school blazer. "I'm sorry, can you help me? I think my house might be haunted."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am so very sorry for taking so long to write and I hope this chapter isn't too boring for everyone, but this is the beginning of a very interesting ride for the SPR crew. A continuous thanks to Mimori Taniyama for being the most amazing beta out there and not giving up on me even though I spend a lot of time not writing. More thanks to Lily, and ToaTepsak for always answering any insecurities I have with sarcasm and encouragement. And, of course, a shout-out to everyone who reviewed;
> 
> Soulsborne123, NinjaPenguinLover, Puff the Evil Dragon, The Night Whisperer, YawnD03, PidgeTechNerd and Guest.
> 
> Read, relax, and review!
> 
> ELV


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